Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

254. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated cost of introducing the living wage for all employees in the public sector. [54567/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The detailed costings sought in this request would require detailed data on the position of staff on each salary scale across the public service and details of the standard working hours per week for each individual grade. This data is not available to the Department. 

Pay band data available to the Department indicates that some 94% of all public service staff are on salary points in excess of €25,000 per annum. The suggested wage at €11.70 per hour based on the Civil Service 37 hour standard net working week equates to an annual salary of €22,589. 

Any of those currently on an annual salary of less than €22,589 could be receiving remuneration in excess of the suggested living wage through additional premium payments in respect of shift or atypical working hours or are on salary scales that progress to the suggested living wage through incremental progression.

Data based on Civil Service staff only indicates that only some 1% of staff (FTE) in the Civil Service are on salary points less than €22,589.  The estimated cost within the civil service, which is some 12% of the overall public service, would be some €3.8m (Headcount). Detailed costings in other sectors of the public service would require collation and estimation on an individual sector level. 

Under the new Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, from January 2018 pay in the public service have been further adjusted.  The pay increases provided for under the Agreement are again progressively weighted towards the lower paid with benefits ranging from 7.4% to 6.2% over the term to end 2020.