Office teamwork

IrishJobs data rates IT as highest paid sector in 2024

Average salary in IT sector was €69,050, with scrum masters and senior engineers excelling
Pro

21 January 2025

Data from postings on IrishJobs has revealed that professionals in the IT sector earned the highest average salary in Ireland in 2024.

Full-time employees in Ireland earned a mean gross salary of €46,791 in 2024. Ireland compares positively to other European economies, with a median salary in the UK of £35,648 (€42,377) and €45,800 in Germany. The research is based on an analysis of salaries and benefits for the most commonly posted jobs across a wide range of sectors undertaken by hiring platforms in The Stepstone Group in Ireland, the UK and Germany.

Findings show that the IT sector had the highest average mean salary at €69,050. This was followed by construction (€63,502), finance (€63,165) and engineering (€59,808). Employees in the Legal sector had an average salary of €56,232. Professionals working in cleaning-related occupations (€27,719) earned the lowest average salary, followed by catering (€31,322) and security (€33,629).

The data shows regional differences in annual salaries across Ireland. Dublin was the county with the highest annual average salary at €48,343, indicating its continued strength as a national hub for enterprise activity and highly skilled labour.

There is a strong performance from counties in Munster. Limerick had the second highest annual average salary (€46,011) powered by manufacturing, life sciences, healthcare, and technology sectors, while Cork (€45,232) had the third highest average annual salary. The average annual salary in Galway was €43,679.

Highly paid roles in IT include scrum master (€86,641) and senior software engineers (€84,076).

In the IT sector, an occupational pension, free parking, and remote working were the top three benefits provided by employers, while in the construction sector, an occupational pension, free parking, and overtime were the typical benefits received by employees.

Sam Dooley, country director of The Stepstone Group Ireland with responsibility for IrishJobs, said: “With unemployment levels forecast to remain low through 2025, employers in Ireland look set to navigate a competitive labour market in the months ahead. Against this backdrop, IrishJobs’ analysis of data on the salaries and benefits of job postings in 2024 provides an insight into how employers are adapting their talent offering as they seek to attract and retain high-calibre talent.

“Our findings showed that professionals in the IT sector were among the most highly paid in Ireland last year. Despite a fall in job vacancy generation in the sector in 2024, the levels of compensation in the sector indicate that highly skilled IT professionals remain in strong demand. As the AI transformation accelerates and more firms look to build out their AI capabilities, we expect this competition for a limited pool of highly skilled professionals to grow at pace.

“With many employers struggling to keep pace with demands for higher wages, enhancing employee benefits can help employers develop a compelling proposition for talent without breaking the bank. Our findings showed that an occupational pension plan was the top benefit in 2024 for professionals in Ireland. With the introduction of pension auto-enrolment on the horizon this year, it provides an important opportunity for employers without a company scheme to consider whether they need to adapt their own pension offering to streamline potential complexities and meet the evolving needs of talent.”

TechCentral Reporters

Read More:


Back to Top ↑

TechCentral.ie