Benchmarking salaries in Ireland
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Benchmarking salaries in Ireland means comparing what you pay your staff against what the broader market pays for equivalent roles, skills and experience. Done properly, it tells you whether your pay is competitive enough to attract and retain people — and whether you are overpaying in areas where the market has moved.
Why benchmarking matters more than gut feel
Many founders set salaries based on what they paid their last hire, what a candidate asked for, or what felt reasonable at the time. That approach drifts quickly. The Irish labour market has shifted considerably over recent years — some roles have tightened, others have softened — and a salary that was competitive in 2023 may be well off the pace today or, in some sectors, now above market.
Getting the number wrong in either direction costs money. Underpay and you lose people, or fail to hire them in the first place. Overpay relative to the market and you create internal compression, where a new hire earns close to or above a more experienced colleague, which causes its own retention problems.
Where to find reliable Irish salary data
No single source is definitive. Use at least two or three in combination.
Salary surveys from recruitment agencies. Most of the large agencies operating in Ireland — Sigmar, Morgan McKinley, Brightwater, Hays — publish annual salary guides broken down by sector, seniority and location. These are free, reasonably detailed, and updated each year. They reflect what candidates are currently being offered, which is the most useful signal.
Job advertisements. Since April 2024, the EU Pay Transparency Directive has been working its way into national implementation, and many Irish employers are already including salary ranges in job ads. Searching live ads for comparable roles on LinkedIn, Indeed or IrishJobs.ie gives you a live market read, not a lagging survey.
Industry bodies and professional associations. Bodies like Engineers Ireland, Chartered Accountants Ireland or the CIPD Ireland branch periodically publish pay data for their sectors. If your hiring is concentrated in one field, these can be more granular than general surveys.
Your own hiring data. Track what candidates are currently asking for and what competing offers look like when you lose someone. This is real, current and specific to your location and hiring pool.
How to structure a benchmarking exercise
Start by writing a clear, accurate job description for the role you are benchmarking. Vague titles skew comparisons — "Senior Engineer" means different things in a 10-person startup and a 500-person company. Define scope, responsibilities, required experience and whether the role is a team lead or individual contributor.
Then identify your comparison group. Think about:
- Geography. Dublin salaries are generally higher than regional rates, though remote work has compressed this somewhat for roles that are fully remote.
- Company size and stage. A scale-up competing for talent against large multinationals may need to compensate with equity or flexibility rather than matching base salary directly.
- Sector. Tech, pharma and financial services typically pay above the median for equivalent seniority compared to hospitality, retail or the community and voluntary sector.
Once you have gathered data from multiple sources, look for the range, not a single number. Identify the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile for the role. Then decide where you want to sit in that range — matching the median is a reasonable default, but if retention is a known problem or the role is hard to fill, targeting the 65th to 75th percentile is a defensible investment.
Factoring in the full cost of employment
When comparing salaries, remember that the gross figure on an offer letter is not what employment costs you. As an employer in Ireland, you pay PRSI at approximately 11.15% on top of gross pay for most employees on Class A. You also typically fund or part-fund benefits such as health insurance, pension contributions, life assurance and income protection.
Pension is becoming more significant. My Future Fund, Ireland's auto-enrolment scheme, is being introduced from 2026. Employer contribution requirements will phase in over time, adding a further mandatory cost on top of base pay. Build this into your total compensation modelling now, even if you already offer a scheme.
Keeping benchmarks current
A benchmarking exercise is not a one-time project. Build a review into your annual compensation cycle — typically aligned with your performance review period. At minimum, revisit salary bands every twelve months, and do a targeted check any time you are hiring for a role you have not recruited in the past year or two.
Pay equity is also worth reviewing at the same time. Unexplained gaps between employees doing substantially the same work carry legal and reputational risk, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive will introduce formal reporting requirements for larger employers in the coming years.
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