Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 May 2023
477. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated full-year cost of paying the living wage and the minimum wage to all workers on the CE scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26180/23]
View answerThe Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis.
The payment rates on CE are related to the underlying social protection payments plus €27.50 per week. In addition, a participant may be eligible, where appropriate, for payments in respect of any qualified dependent adult and children.
If a CE participant's underlying payment (including dependents) is €220 a week or less, they receive the minimum CE weekly rate of €247.50, that is €220 plus the top up of €27.50. If a participant's underlying payment (including dependents) was €220 or more, then they receive the same rate as their social welfare payment plus €27.50.
These rates are not comparable to hourly rates such as the National Minimum Wage. However, for the Deputy’s information, CE participants work 19.5 hours per week, so if an hourly rate was applied to the weekly minimum rate for CE participants, it would equate to €12.69 per hour. The National Minimum Wage is €11.30 per hour, making a difference of €1.39.
In November 2022, a Government decision on the introduction of a national living wage for employees was announced. The living wage will be set at 60% of hourly median wages in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. It will be introduced over a four-year period and will be in place by 2026, at which point it will replace the statutory National Minimum Wage.
The current hourly National Minimum Wage of €11.30 is in line with the living wage strawman proposal. As such, 2023 can be considered the first year of the proposed four-year path towards reaching the living wage of 60% of the median wage which is in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission.
There are currently 18,649 participants on CE. The annual cost of funding this number of participants at the minimum weekly CE rate would be almost €240m. If the National Minimum Wage for 19.5 hours per week was paid to the same number of people, it would cost approximately €213.6m.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
