Just under a third of Ireland’s highest earners say they have difficulty making ends meet

The threshold for the top 10% of earners in Ireland starts at gross personal earnings of just under €70,000.

Just under three in 10 of the top 10% of earners in Ireland said they had difficulty making ends meet, according to a new study. The study, titled Inequality and the Top 10% in Europe, conducted by TASC, the Think Tank for Action on Social Change based in Dublin, examined the attitudes of the top 10% of earners in Ireland, Sweden, the UK and Spain. In Ireland, the threshold for the top 10% of earners starts at gross personal earnings of just under €70,000 (€69,511.01) with the threshold for the top 1% beginning at just under €190,000 (€189,701.69). In both cases, the threshold was significantly higher than in the other three countries examined as part of the study; in Spain, for example, the threshold for the top 10% begins at just under €40,000 and the top 1% at just under €85,000. Average gross personal earnings in Ireland are a little over €36,000. Despite the superior financial position of Ireland’s top 10% compared to other countries, the study found that 24% of Ireland’s earners had “some difficulty” making ends meet, with 3% saying they had “difficulty” and 1% saying they had “great difficulty”. The study cited a company director named ‘Siobhán’, who said: “I make €100,000 a year. At the end of the third week of every month, I have nothing left. I pay for my own house, I pay my parents’ mortgage; I have three kids, two step-kids, one of which is in university. “And at the end of the month, there is nothing left. So, while people might look and say, ‘Wow! you’re on a great salary.’ Yes, I am on a good salary, but I’m exactly the same as everybody else; I have got nothing left at the third week of the month.” Overall, the study found that younger generations, especially in Ireland, were concerned about their ability to buy a house and settle down. It also concluded that the top 10% of earners in Ireland weren’t secure about their own futures or the future of society in Ireland. “The top 10% sympathise with those earning less,” summary for the top 10% of earners in Ireland read. “They would like to see more equality, but are not sure how to achieve that politically. Political parties have yet to convince them they are capable of creating a fairer society.” The full study can be accessed here.