Depending on your profession and the type of contract you have, you can expect very different incomes. Usually contract jobs boast higher salaries, but you do not have paid holidays, and your contract is for a fixed term period. This means that you are often hired to work on a specific project. Once the project is over, your contract finishes as well. In this case, you are not treated as an employee at the company where you are placed. Therefore, you are not entitled to any company related benefits. For example, if you work for an IT company manufacturing hardware and you are an employee, you often get discounts from the products. If you work as a contractor, you usually will not get these. In the following sections, we will discuss the basic salary levels focusing on entry-level positions.

Minimum Salary level is €7.65/hour. If you work as an assistant or personal secretary you can expect somewhere around €9-12/hr for call center staff they usually pay around the same salary. We can say that in entry level office positions you can expect to get around €18.000-22.000/year.

For Hotel and Restaurant staff the minimum wages for an entry-level position are the following:

Bar Staff (Experienced/Qualified)
€18,000+Service Charge

Waiting Staff (Experienced/Qualified)
€18,000+Service Charge or Tips

Receptionist
€18,000 - €20,000
    
Concierge
€17,000 - €20,000

Demi Chef
€18,000 - €22,000

Commis Chef 2-4 Years
€16,500 - €20,000

Construction staff can expect around 500€/week as entry-level worker like a bricklayer or a carpenter.

Last, we give an outline on the minimum salary levels. Do not work under these rates!

The National Minimum Wage Act, 2000 provides that the minimum wage rate for an experienced adult employee from May 1, 2005 is 7.65 euro per hour.

The Minimum Wage Act provides the following sub-minimum rates.

    - An employee who is under 18 is entitled to 5.36 euro per hour (this is 70% of the minimum wage;
    - An employee who is in the first year of employment since the age of 18 is entitled to 6.12 euro per hour (80% of minimum wage);
    - An employee who is in the second year of employment since the date of first employment over the age of 18 is entitled to 6.89 euro per hour (90% of the minimum wage).

The trainee rates provided by the Act are as follows:

    - First one-third of training course 5.73 per hour euro (75% of national minimum wage rate).
    - Second one-third of training course 6.12 euro per hour (80% of national minimum wage rate).
    - Final one third of the training course 6.89 euro per hour (90% of national minimum wage rate).

For more details on Minimum salary levels please visit:

Minimum pay rates in Ireland

To find out what tax you are going to pay on these incomes please visit the taxes section.