A 'Living Wage' in Ireland Examining the process & potential result of calculating a ‘Living Wage’ for working age households in Ireland

Issued: January 2014

Summary

This working-paper sets out to examine the process for calculating a “Living Wage” for working age households in Ireland, and the potential result that would be produced. For this initial examination of the potential of calculating a Living Wage for Irish households the focus will be limited to working age households based in Dublin. The emphasis in this working-paper is in developing the application of the Living Wage method to the Irish context, the focus therefore is primarily on the process for calculating a Living Wage rate.

Following the release of this paper a series of discussions and discourse will take place with other interested groups. Subsequent to this, the assumptions made in the calculations will be reviewed in light of feedback received, and refined. Therefore, the result of the calculations should not be taken as the final Living Wage figure for Irish households.