10 cent an hour; Government increases National Minimum Wage

The Government has refreshed the National Minimum Wage, an increase in the previous amount had now brought up to €10.20 per hour from 1 January. 

Over 122,000 minimum wage workers will be benefited from this new increase.

A few weeks ago, Patricia King, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and Mandate Gerry Light, General Secretary of the Retail Union, walked out from the Low Pay Commission. The walk out was because the group’s proposed 10 per cent increase is not enough to meet the minimum requirements of minimum wage workers.

“Many of the workers on the minimum wage form part of the group of essential workers who have helped keep our economy going through this Covid-19 pandemic. It is therefore completely unacceptable that they and other workers who are the lowest paid in this state would not be afforded decency and fairness by receiving an equitable increase in the minimum wage,” Ms King said today.

Heather Humphreys, the Minister for Social Protection, observed that the minimum wage had risen from €8.65 to €10.10 from within a span of 4 years from 2016.

However, they also assured that the PRSI limit would be revised to reflect the increase in the minimum wage and to assist employers.

She said that they also want to ensure that the increase in the minimum wage does not result in employers having to pay a higher level of PRSI charge solely due to this increase.

“I will make regulations that will increase the employer PRSI threshold from €395 currently to €398 from 1st January 2021,” she said.

The Low Pay Commission paved way for an improved data collection on low paid and minimum wage employees and it has also created a concrete research base, said Ms Humhreys.   

Ms King said minimum wage workers were part of a group of essential workers who sustained the economy through the Kovid-19 pandemic. 

“It is therefore completely unacceptable that they and other workers who are the lowest paid in this state would not be afforded decency and fairness by receiving an equitable increase in the minimum wage,” she said.