Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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195. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the estimated cost of bringing all public service workers up to the living wage of €12.17 per hour (details supplied); the estimated cost of bringing the wage to €12.90 per hour as set by the Living Wage Technical Group under the terms of the current Public Service Stability Agreement Building Momentum; and estimated cost under the proposed new pay deal in tabular form. [45203/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The suggested Living Wage at €12.17 per hour based on the Civil Service 35 hour standard net working week equates to an annual salary of approximately €22,226. The suggested Living Wage at €12.90 per hour based on the Civil Service 35 hour standard net working week equates to an annual salary of €23,559. Detailed data on civil service staff indicates that only 0.1% of staff (FTE) in the civil service are on salary points less than the suggested Living Wage.

Those currently on an annual salary of less than €22,226 or €23,559 may be receiving remuneration in excess of the suggested living wage through additional premium payments in respect of shift work or atypical working hours. In addition, these salary scales progress to the suggested Living Wage and above through normal incremental progression.

The current public service agreement is Building Momentum - A New Public Service Agreement 2021-2022. As the deputy will be aware, proposals on an extension of Building Momentum are currently being considered by members of ICTU, other unions and staff representative associations. These proposals amount to an additional 6.5% in pay adjustments above the existing Building Momentum agreement, for total headline adjustments of 9.5% over the lifetime of the Agreement. The extended Agreement is weighted towards those at lower incomes headline increases of approximately 12.5% for the lowest paid public servants. This would include all those earning less than €23,559 per annum.

The public service information 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 held in my Department.