Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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59. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of persons in receipt of the minimum wage; the number of persons in receipt of the minimum wage who are under 30 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30129/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Statistics on the number of persons in receipt of the minimum wage are gathered by the Central Statistics Office. Below is the latest information made available to my officials by the Central Statistics Office.

In Q4 2020, 60,500 employees between 15 and 24 earned the minimum wage or lower. A further 22,400 employees between 25 and 34 earned the minimum wage or lower. 

Across all age groups a total of 127,600 employees earn the minimum wage or lower. Of these 105,100 earn the minimum wage and 22,400 earn less than the minimum wage.

This is in the context of total employment levels of 2,306,200 in Q4 2020, if using the standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) criteria, rather than COVID-adjusted figures.

The current National Minimum Wage is €10.20 per hour.

The National Minimum Wage applies to most employees. It applies to full-time, part-time, temporary and casual employees. However the following categories of employees are excluded:

Employees who are close relatives of the employer, where the employer is a Sole Trader, such as a spouse, civil partner, parent, step-parent, grandparent, child, step-child, grandchild, sibling or half-sibling of the employer;

A craft apprentice within the meaning of the Industrial Training Act, 1967,or the Labour of Services Act, 1987.

Sub-minimum rates also apply to those aged under 20 years.