The tech sector had the highest average salary in Ireland in 2024, new data from IrishJobs has found, with construction and finance also scoring highly.
The data showed the average mean salary for employees in the IT sector was €69,050 last year, compared with a mean gross salary of €46,791 for the average employee in Ireland. Construction was in second place at €63,502, followed by finance at €63,165. Engineering and the legal sector had average salaries of €59,808 and €56,232 respectively.
However, the highest paid occupation was head of finance, which attracted an average salary of just under €91,000.
“Despite a fall in job vacancy generation in the sector in 2024, the levels of compensation in the sector indicate that highly skilled IT professionals remain in strong demand,” said Sam Dooley, Country Director of The Stepstone Group Ireland with responsibility for IrishJobs. “As the AI transformation accelerates and more firms look to build out their AI capabilities, we expect this competition for a limited pool of highly skilled professionals to grow at pace.”
The lowest salaries were seen in cleaning related occupations at €27,719, followed by catering and security.
There were differences in regions, with Dublin earning the highest annual average salary at €48,343, with Limerick in second place and Cork in third.
The research analysed salaries and benefits for jobs across a range of sectors in Ireland, the UK and Germany. That showed Ireland compared favourable with the UK, where the mean salary was £35,648 (€42,377), and Germany at €45,800.
Among the top benefits provided to staff are pensions, free parking, the cycle-to-work scheme, career development, and flexible hours.
“With many employers struggling to keep pace with demands for higher wages, enhancing employee benefits can help employers develop a compelling proposition for talent without breaking the bank,” said Mr Dooley. “Our findings showed that an occupational pension plan was the top benefit in 2024 for professionals in Ireland. With the introduction of pension auto-enrolment on the horizon this year, it provides an important opportunity for employers without a company scheme to consider whether they need to adapt their own pension offering to streamline potential complexities and meet the evolving needs of talent.”
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