Morgan McKinley report shows many salaries failing to match inflation
It’s a good time to look for a new job if you want a change or scene or to upskills, however if a bigger pay packet is your primary reason for moving employer you may be disappointed, according to the 2026 Morgan McKinley Salary Guide.
The annual analysis of pay across a wide range of professional disciplines, shows that salary growth has slowed sharply across the Irish labour market, with median permanent salary movement largely flat to 2% and many roles tracking at or below inflation.
The report found that unlike previous years, the slowdown in salary growth was not being driven by weak demand for talent but by the demands of digital transformation projects, meeting regulatory and compliance obligations, and managing leaner operating models at the same time as controlling costs.
As a result, broad salary increases have largely disappeared, replaced by targeted investment in specialist capability and a growing reliance on contract, fixed-term, and fractional professionals, which lets employers tap niche skills, sustain delivery, and keep teams lean without inflating overall salary costs.
The guide showed that meaningful salary growth has concentrated in a narrow set of specialist disciplines, including advanced technology, cyber and data governance, ESG, regulatory risk and compliance, and large-scale change delivery. In these areas, uplifts of between 4% and 8% were recorded where skills shortages remain acute.
Outside these areas, salary growth has effectively stalled. Employers have focused on quality of life issues as talent attractors such as flexibility, hybrid working models, benefits and job security, career pathways, and role scope, with clarity of purpose and quality of leadership emerging as decisive attraction and retention factors.
Data engineers, cyber security analysts and GRC specialists, machine learning engineers and data scientists, AI auditors and AI ethicists, and automation and DevOps professionals are the most in-demand positions so far in 2026.
Trayc Keevans, global FDI director at Morgan McKinley, said: “Employers are not in hiring retreat, but they are being far more intentional. Demand remains strong where skills directly enable transformation, regulatory compliance, or operational continuity, but organisations are no longer responding by expanding teams or lifting salaries across the board. Instead, we are seeing entirely new, more narrowly defined roles enter the market, including AI Auditors, ESG data governance leads, cyber and operational resilience specialists, and regulatory transformation programme managers, as employers target very specific capability gaps that did not exist at scale even two years ago.
“Pay is no longer the default lever. Flexibility, clarity of role, quality of leadership and long-term development have become just as important in attracting and retaining talent, particularly in these specialist and high pressure roles… Geographically, Dublin continues to command the highest salaries, but the gap with regional cities has narrowed. Hybrid working has allowed specialists in these newer, highly technical roles to remain outside the Dublin commuter belt while still accessing senior positions. As a result, salary bands in Cork, Galway and Limerick have edged closer to Dublin levels in specialist disciplines, while Waterford has remained broadly flat.”
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