Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 July 2014
95. Deputy Ruth Coppinger asked the Minister for Finance if he has an estimate of the impact that reductions in the public sector budget and the growth in temporary and part-time contracts and lower wages in the public sector have had on the wage share to GDP ratio. [32429/14]
View answerThe public service Exchequer wage bill (net of pension related deductions) has been reduced by 17 per cent since 2008, with public service employment volumes falling by 10 per cent.
The most definitive source of wage data comes from the annual National Income and Expenditure Accounts, recently published by the Central Statistics Office. These reveal that the whole economy wage bill has fallen from 45 per cent of GDP in 2008, to under 43 per cent of GDP by the end of 2013. These available aggregate data capture both public and private sector wage developments and are derived from employment on both a full and part-time basis. They include both wages and salaries and employers' PRSI contributions. On a GNP basis, the fall in the wage share over this period is slightly more pronounced: from 53 per cent to 50 per cent.
Relating specifically to public service developments, compensation of public employees (excluding those in commercial state-sponsored bodies) as a share of GDP has fallen from 11¼ per cent in 2008 to 10½ per cent in 2013.
