Minimum wage will rise to €11.30 in plans set for Cabinet approval

Ministers are set to sign off on an 80-cent increase to the minimum wage to €11.30 per hour from January.

Ministers are set to sign off on an 80-cent increase to the minimum wage, bringing it to €11.30 per hour from January.

Leo Varadkar, the Tánaiste and Minister of Enterprise, is also expected to recommend to the Cabinet on Wednesday that the living wage be raised to €13.10 from next year.

The new minimum wage will go into effect on January 1st, 2023, to coincide with changes to USC and PRSI, according to the Irish Examiner.

The report from the Low Pay Commission, a statutory organisation made up of workers’ representatives, business representatives, and independent experts, has a number of suggestions, one of which is the large rise in the national minimum wage.

However, the Low Pay Commission has emphasised that the minimum wage alone cannot cover employees for inflation and recent increases in the cost of living, and it suggests further steps be done to protect low-paid workers.

Earlier this year, the Tánaiste published proposals to phase in a living wage by 2026 to replace the national minimum wage. The living wage will be set at 60 per cent of the median wage.

For the first time in its annual national minimum wage report, the Low Pay Commission set out an indicative national living wage for 2023 of €13.10. The intention is to phase in the living wage between now and 2026 when it will become mandatory.

The full living wage plan will be approved by Mr. Varadkar at Cabinet next month, though the scheduled phase-in may vary over the following years depending on inflation and wage growth.

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