What’s In An Irish Name? Living Wage Goes Toe To Toe With Minimum Wage

Once upon a time in Ireland, the minimum wage that employers were required to pay employees happened to be about 60% of the national median¹ wage.

No longer.

While the wealthier (largely middle classes of wage earners) have grown even wealthier, minimum wage earnings have fallen steadily below that once-upon-a-time minimum of 60% of national median.

Now the Irish Parliament proposes to scrap the minimum wage over the next four years and replace it with a ‘living’ wage. Certainly the name change may help remind citizens and legislators of the idea that workers and their families are actually able to live on their wages. From around the world, including the wealthiest nations, come stories of mothers, fathers and older children all working at least one job to top up ‘minimum’ wages so that they can survive. Comfortable living, including shelter, food, and other necessities of life, don’t even come on the table.

By 2026, it is proposed that the ‘living’ wage in Ireland will be pegged annually to 60% of the country’s median wage. The intended result: if national prosperity elevates one class, it will elevate all classes, including those who are paid the lowest.

On the surface this might seem to be an idea supported by the working classes and railed against by the business classes. However, the proposal is coming from Ireland’s Department of Enterprise. It is aimed at cushioning businesses in Ireland’s large service sector from increases in labour costs that have arisen from both the pandemic, as well as the current energy crisis.

Whatever the source of this move towards a ‘living’ wage for all, there are many countries around the world which, from a human rights perspective if no other, might look seriously at Ireland’s proposed wage changes. Read more in The Irish Times: Minimum wage to be phased out by 2026 for new living wage

1. The median is the middle number of a population of numbers (or an average of two if there are two in the middle). Here’s the huge catch when using the median in a population where there are a large number of the low-paid people, and a small number of high-paid people. The pay of a 5 person population is: 5,000, 5,000, 5,000, 1,000,000, 1,000,000. The median wage is the middle number of these five. It’s 5,000. Now the salary of the big bosses doubles. They now make 2,000,000. The median is still the middle number: 5,000. Will the median help share the wealth? Not in the case of many poorly-paid workers and a few high-paid bosses.