Minimum Wage Ireland 2026: Rates by Age and What a Worker Really Costs

Minimum wage Ireland 2026: since 1 January 2026 the national minimum wage is €14.15 an hour for employees aged 20 and over. Younger staff can be paid a set percentage of it: €12.74 at 19, €11.32 at 18 and €9.91 under 18. The rate comes from the National Minimum Wage Order 2025 (S.I. No. 472 of 2025). Budget 2027 has announced €14.94 from 1 January 2027, but that still needs a new Order.

The hourly rate is only the start of the bill. On top of every euro of pay comes employer PRSI – 9.15% or 11.40% since 1 October 2026, depending on whether weekly pay is above €552 – plus 1.5% for staff auto-enrolled in MyFutureFund. Because the higher PRSI rate applies to the whole week's pay, one extra hour on the rota can cost a small business twice the hourly rate.

Minimum wage Ireland 2026: hourly rates by age

These rates apply to hours worked from 1 January to 31 December 2026, as published by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) and Citizens Information.

Four rules that catch employers out:

• Age, not experience. The reduced rates depend only on age. The old trainee rates were repealed in March 2019, so a new starter aged 20 or over is due the full €14.15 from day one.
• Birthdays change the rate. The rate goes up when an employee turns 18, 19 or 20, so check dates of birth before each pay run.
• Premiums don't count. Sunday, overtime, public holiday and unsocial-hours premiums, and tips paid through a central fund, cannot be used to reach the minimum. Basic pay, shift allowances, bonuses and commission can.
• It is an average. The test is average hourly pay over the pay reference period, which can be a week but no longer than a month. Board can count at €1.27 per hour worked and lodgings at €33.42 a week.

Some sectors, such as contract cleaning and security, have higher legal minimums set by Employment Regulation Orders.

What changes in 2027 (Budget 2027)

Budget 2027, announced on 6 October 2026, confirmed a 79-cent rise to €14.94 an hour from 1 January 2027, in line with the Low Pay Commission's recommendation. Citizens Information notes that the change still requires legislation. On 21 October 2026 the new Order was not yet on the Irish Statute Book – last year's was signed on 8 October.

The youth rates are percentages of the adult rate under section 15 of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000, so they will be in the region of €13.45 at 19, €11.95 at 18 and €10.46 under 18. Take the exact figures from the Order when it is signed. Until then, round up rather than down: 80% of €14.94 is €11.952, so €11.96 keeps an 18-year-old safely above it.

Two more changes affect the 2027 wage bill:

• The employer PRSI threshold rises from €552 to €600 a week from 1 January 2027, as announced by the Minister for Finance in his Budget statement.
• All PRSI rates are due to rise by a further 0.15 percentage points on 1 October 2027 under the Government's PRSI roadmap, taking employer Class A to 9.30% and 11.55%.

Employer PRSI in 2026: rates and the €552 threshold

Most staff pay Class A PRSI. These are the employer rates published by the Department of Social Protection:

• It is a cliff, not a band. Once pay is over €552, the higher rate applies to all of that week's pay, not just the part above €552. The threshold was raised from €527 in January 2026 in line with the new minimum wage: 39 hours at €14.15 is €551.85, just under it.
• Premiums count here. PRSI is charged on gross reckonable pay, so a Sunday premium or overtime can push a week over €552 even though it doesn't count towards the minimum wage.
• Each week stands alone for weekly-paid staff. For monthly pay the threshold is €2,392.

Employees under 16 have no PRSI liability (Class M). The employee's own 4.35% only starts above €352 a week, but the employer pays from the first euro once pay reaches €38.

Worked example: 39 hours vs 40 hours at minimum wage

Beyond the hourly rate: Sunday premium, holidays and pension

Sunday premium

There is no fixed legal percentage. If Sunday work is not already reflected in the pay, the employee is due a reasonable allowance, a reasonable pay increase or reasonable paid time off (Citizens Information – working hours). Suppose Aoife's contract pays time-and-a-third on Sundays and 8 of her 39 hours fall on a Sunday: the premium is €37.73, her gross is €589.58 and employer PRSI jumps from €50.49 to €67.21.

Breaks, leave and public holidays

• Breaks – 15 minutes after more than 4½ hours, 30 minutes after more than 6 hours (which can include the first 15) – are not working time and need not be paid.
• Annual leave is 4 working weeks a year, or 8% of hours worked up to that maximum, paid in advance at the normal weekly rate (annual leave).
• There are 10 public holidays. For each one the employer gives a paid day off, a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave or an extra day's pay (public holidays).
• Statutory sick pay is up to 5 days a year at 70% of normal pay, capped at €110 a day.

To keep leave balances and bank holiday pay per person in one place, an annual leave tracker that works out the statutory entitlement and public holiday benefit sits well alongside the rota.

Auto-enrolment (MyFutureFund)

Since 1 January 2026, employees aged 23 to 60 who earn €20,000 or more a year and have no pension through payroll are enrolled automatically. The employer pays 1.5% of gross pay in years 1 to 3, rising to 3% in year 4 (gov.ie – auto-enrolment for employers). NAERSA, not the employer, decides who is eligible.

The real cost per hour worked

Put together, at the rates in force since 1 October 2026, a full year of Aoife on 39 hours costs €28,696.20 in pay, €2,625.48 in PRSI and €430.56 in pension: €31,752.24. Take out 4 weeks of annual leave and 10 public holidays and she works 46 weeks, or 1,794 hours – about €17.70 per hour actually worked, before any Sunday premium or sick days.

Costing a full weekly rota, including under-18s

On a real rota every person has a different rate, different hours and a different PRSI band. Here is one week in a café in November 2026, with time-and-a-third on Sunday as the contractual premium:

Total cost includes €226.81 of employer PRSI and €19.04 of MyFutureFund for the two staff aged 23 or over. That is €15.77 per rostered hour. Two people are on 11.40%: the manager, and the barista only because of her Sunday premium. Rostered for 36 hours with the same Sunday shift, she would stay under €552 – a decision to make knowingly, not by accident.

The STAFF COST sheet in the Staff Rota Template does this for up to 30 people over 6 weeks: hours from the rota or clock-in times, the minimum wage for each age group from the date of birth (with a warning if a rate is below it), Sunday premium, paid leave and employer PRSI at the lower or higher rate for each week. The rates sit in SETTINGS, so you can type in the 2027 figures when they are confirmed.

Before 1 January 2027: a short checklist

1. Move pay to €14.94 for hours worked from 1 January 2027 once the Order is signed, and update the youth rates.
2. List who turns 18, 19 or 20 during 2027.
3. Change the PRSI threshold in payroll to €600, and diary 1 October 2027 for the next rate rise.
4. Re-cost January rotas and the year's budget. A cash flow forecast with employer PRSI by weekly pay and auto-enrolment carries the new wage bill into a 12-month cash plan.
5. Keep records of hours and pay for 3 years – the WRC can ask for them.