Wexford workers have lowest wages in the South East as men earn €10k more per annum than women

By Simon Bourke, Wexford People

In the wake of a budget which offered little for working families, new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that Wexford continues to lag behind its neighbours when it comes to average annual earnings.

The figures reveal the mean annual wages in the county for 2024 were €46,746 with men earning an average of €51,735 and women €41,479.

This compares unfavourably with neighbouring counties as those in Carlow earned an average of €47,834 in 2024, Kilkenny €50,886, Waterford €50,441, and Wicklow €59,827.

Workers in Wicklow were the third-highest earners in 2024 with only those in Dublin (€65,822) and Kildare (€60,121) earning more. The national average wage for 2024 was €56,356 with males earning €63,520 compared to just €49,022 for females.

The economic sectors with the highest proportion of employments in the top ten per cent for males were construction (92.6 per cent) and transportation & storage (83.6 per cent). For females the most lucrative positions were held in the human health & social work sector (48.0 per cent) and education (47.4 per cent).

Males represented almost three-quarters (72.4 per cent) of employments with earnings in the top 1 per cent, while the corresponding figure for females was 27.6 per cent.

From a regional perspective the south east continues to fare poorly with just 3.7 per cent of the nation’s top earners residing here. This is compared to 56.1 per cent in Dublin, 12.8 per cent in the mid east, 11 per cent in the south west, and 5.3 per cent in the mid west.