Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

63. To ask the Taoiseach the average wage for child care workers; how this compares to European Union and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures. [14721/16]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The exact information requested by the Deputy is currently not available.

Statistics on average wages are compiled from the quarterly Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS), and from the periodic Labour Costs Survey and Structure of Earnings Surveys conducted under EU Regulations. While these surveys include breakdowns by sector and by occupation, the figures do not include a separate breakdown in relation to childcare workers. Accurate results at this level of detail cannot be provided from sample surveys.

In the EU NACE Rev 2 economic activity classification system, Child day-care activitiesare classified as a sub-group of NACE code 88, Social work activities without accommodation. Figures are available for the latter sector from the quarterly EHECS survey, showing average earnings per week of €465.12 in quarter four of 2015. This is the average earnings for all occupations working in the Social work activities without accommodationsector.

Some comparative EU statistics are available for the Social work activitiessector from the 2012 EU-Labour Costs Survey. Average earnings in the Social work activitiessector in Ireland were €32,896 in 2012, the fourth highest average earnings in the EU. The United Kingdom had a comparative figure of €28,583, while the European Union average was €25,468. See Table 1.

Average hourly earnings for the Social work activitiessector are also available from the 2012 EU-Labour Cost Survey and show that Ireland earned the fourth highest average hourly earnings in the European Union, with mean hourly earnings of €20.21. This compares to mean hourly earnings of €15.87 in the UK and €15.76 as an EU average. Denmark recorded the highest average hourly earnings in this sector with a figure of €26.70. See Table 1.

There are no comparative statistics available on childcare workers for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries.

The CSO is currently preparing updated results on the structure of earnings for the years 2011 to 2014, based primarily on administrative rather than survey data. Broad sectoral and occupational statistics from this source will be published before the end of July and more detailed breakdowns will subsequently be available upon request, subject to CSO confidentiality rules. While this will enable more detailed structural tables than before, the CSO does not expect that it will be possible to provide tables on earnings on specific detailed occupation codes of child care workers. To identify the earnings of childcare workers, individual occupations would need to be coded at the 4 digit level of the International Standard Classification of Occupations.

Table 1: Mean annual and hourly earnings in Social work activitiessector (NACE code 88) - 2008 and 2012

Source: Labour Cost Survey, Eurostat.