The national minimum wage has increased every year from 2015 to 2025 from €8.65 an hour to €13.50 an hour. The level of increases to the minimum wage varied each year but regardless of the size of the increase the ESRI found that there was no pattern with respect to the magnitude of the minimum wage increase. “In some years, the minimum wage increase was relatively large, while in other years it was small. However, larger minimum wage increases over this period did not coincide with a higher likelihood of minimum wage employees becoming unemployed,” the report said. The ESRI did acknowledge that the minimum wage increases that it focused on for this study coincided with a period of strong economic growth and low unemployment.

Source: Irish Examiner March 30, 2026 23:07 UTC