Employer of Record in Ireland: what an employee costs, and what the employer actually pays
Irish labour costs are the fifth highest in the European Union, but the employer’s own contribution is lighter than in most of Western Europe. This page separates the two, using the rates the Department of Social Protection publishes rather than the ones providers estimate.
The short answer
Ireland is expensive because of salaries, not because of the employer
This distinction decides whether Ireland belongs on your shortlist. Total labour cost in Ireland runs at €44.20 an hour across the whole economy. Of that, €36.60 reaches the employee and €9.00 does not. The non-wage share is 20.4 %, which is lighter than Germany, considerably lighter than France, and lighter than Spain.
So the Irish bill is high because Irish pay is high. The employer surcharge on top of it is comparatively modest. That matters, because the salary is set by the market for the role and the surcharge is set by law — and only one of the two moves when you move country.
Total labour cost
€44.20Per hour, whole economy, 2025. Fifth highest in the European Union, behind the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and France.
Reaches the employee
€36.60The highest wage figure of any country in the table, ahead of the Netherlands. Irish pay, not Irish payroll tax, is what makes the total.
Non-wage share
20.4 %Against 32.3 % in France, 26.1 % in Spain and 23.6 % in Germany. Only the eastern member states run lighter.
The employer side
Employer PRSI: two rates and one threshold
Irish social insurance is called PRSI, Pay Related Social Insurance. Most employees fall under Class A. For an employer, Class A resolves into two percentages and a weekly line that decides which one applies.
| Weekly earnings | Employer pays | From 1 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Up to €552 | 9 % | 9.15 % |
| Above €552 | 11.25 % | 11.4 % |
Three details decide more cases than the headline percentages do.
The threshold moved on 1 January 2026. The €552 line is current. Any figure you were quoted before that date was calculated against a lower one.
The employer pays even when the employee does not. An employee earning €352 a week or less pays no PRSI at all and still accrues cover. The employer’s share remains payable on those earnings. A part-time hire does not remove the employer contribution; it removes only the employee’s.
A one per cent National Training Fund Levy sits inside the Class A employer contribution. It is not billed separately and it is not optional. Quotes that present employer PRSI as a clean 9 or 11.25 per cent already include it.
Both rates rise by 0.15 percentage points on 1 October 2026. On a salary above the threshold that is a small number, but it lands mid-year, and a twelve-month budget built on the January figure will be short.
Below €38 a week there is no insurable employment at all under Class A. Someone earning less than that is insured under a different class with different consequences for what they later qualify for. It is an edge case, and it is exactly the kind of edge case that surfaces with a first part-time hire.
Worked through
What the employer pays at seven salary levels
PRSI is assessed on weekly earnings, so an annual salary has to be divided by fifty-two before the rate is known. The figures below apply the Class A employer rates in force from 1 January 2026, and the final column shows the same salary once both rates rise on 1 October 2026.
| Gross salary | Per week | Employer rate | Employer PRSI | Total employer cost | From Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €25,000 | €480.77 | 9 % | €2,250 | €27,250 | €27,288 |
| €28,000 | €538.46 | 9 % | €2,520 | €30,520 | €30,562 |
| €30,000 | €576.92 | 11.25 % | €3,375 | €33,375 | €33,420 |
| €40,000 | €769.23 | 11.25 % | €4,500 | €44,500 | €44,560 |
| €50,000 | €961.54 | 11.25 % | €5,625 | €55,625 | €55,700 |
| €65,000 | €1,250.00 | 11.25 % | €7,313 | €72,313 | €72,410 |
| €80,000 | €1,538.46 | 11.25 % | €9,000 | €89,000 | €89,120 |
The step at €28,704
Fifty-two weeks at €552 is €28,704 a year. That is where the employer rate changes, and the change is not marginal. The higher rate applies to the earnings, not merely to the part above the line.
At €28,704 the employer pays €2,583 in PRSI. One euro above it, and the same employer pays €3,229. An extra euro in the employee’s hand costs the employer an extra €646. Nothing about that is recovered further up the scale: the higher rate simply applies from there on.
Two practical consequences. If you are hiring near that band, the honest thing is to place the salary clearly above it rather than just over the line, because the money is spent either way. And if pay is variable — commission, overtime, bonus paid in one week — the assessment is weekly, so a single heavy week can pull that week into the higher rate even when the annual figure sits below it.
These are contributions only. They exclude income tax and the Universal Social Charge, which the employee pays, and they exclude anything you add voluntarily — pension, health cover, equipment. They also exclude any provider fee if you use an Employer of Record, which sits on top of the total in the fifth column.
The employee side
What comes out of the salary you agree
You are not paying this, but you will be asked about it, because the candidate negotiates on what lands in the account rather than on what leaves yours.
An employee under Class A earning more than €352 a week pays 4.2 % PRSI on all earnings, a rate that applies from 1 October 2025 and replaced 4.1 %. At or below €352 a week the employee pays nothing and remains covered.
Between €352.01 and €424 a week a tapered credit softens the step. The maximum credit is €12, reached at €352.01, and it falls by one sixth of every euro earned above €352. Past €424 the credit is gone entirely.
PRSI is not the whole deduction. Income tax and the Universal Social Charge sit on top of it and are collected through PAYE by Revenue. Those are the employee’s, not yours, but they are the reason an Irish gross figure and an Irish net figure diverge more than candidates expect.
Floors set by law
Minimum wage, leave and notice
National minimum wage
€14.15Per hour, the full adult rate. Reduced rates apply to workers under twenty, on a sliding scale by age. An employer may pay more and cannot agree to pay less.
Annual leave
4 weeksFour working weeks for most employees. Where hours are irregular, entitlement is the greater of 8 % of hours worked, capped at four weeks, or one third of a working week for each month with at least 117 hours.
Minimum notice
By serviceSet by the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973. The statutory floor rises with length of service, and a contract may give more but not less.
The 1,365-hour line matters for part-time staff. An employee who works at least 1,365 hours in a leave year takes the full four weeks regardless of which calculation method would otherwise apply. Below that, the method that produces the larger entitlement is the one that governs.
The decision
An Employer of Record, or an Irish company of your own?
Ireland is one of the easier places in Europe to incorporate, which shifts the arithmetic earlier than it shifts in France or Italy. The provider fee is per head and permanent; the cost of running a small Irish company is largely fixed and does not scale with headcount.
Published provider fees are rare, and rarer still in Ireland. Boundless publishes €175 per employee per month. Taken at face value, three employees cost €6,300 a year in fees before a single euro of salary, and ten cost €21,000.
An Employer of Record fits when
- You want one to three people and want them working in weeks
- You are testing whether Irish hiring works before committing
- Nobody on your side wants Irish filing obligations
- You want the option to stop without winding up a company
Your own Irish company fits when
- Headcount is heading past five
- You intend to invoice Irish or EU customers from Ireland
- You need contracts, licences or assets held locally
- Three years of provider fees exceed what the company costs to run
Permanent establishment does not disappear because a provider is in the middle. If the person concludes contracts in your name, or your business has a fixed place at its disposal in Ireland, a taxable presence can arise regardless of who signs the employment contract. That question is decided under the treaty between Ireland and your country and belongs with a tax adviser before the hire, not after the first audit.
Said plainly
When Ireland is worth €44.20 an hour, and when it is not
We are a Bulgarian firm. It would be convenient for us to argue that everyone should hire in Bulgaria at €12.00 an hour instead. That argument is wrong often enough to be worth setting out where it fails.
Ireland is worth it when your customers, your regulator and your documents are all in English and you need people who work natively in that setting. When you need an EU base with common-law contracts, which no other member state offers on the same terms. When the role is senior enough that the salary would be high anywhere and the country premium is a smaller share of the total than it looks. And when you are already an Irish-facing business, where hiring elsewhere solves a cost problem by creating a coordination one.
Ireland is not worth it when the role is remote, delivery-focused and language-flexible, which describes most engineering, support and back-office work. When you are hiring several people and the multiple compounds — the difference between €44.20 and €12.00 is one person against three and a half. And when the reason Ireland is on the list is that someone recommended it years ago for reasons that were about corporate tax, not payroll.
The full comparison across twenty-two countries, with the same official figures used consistently, is on our page about the Employer of Record in Europe.
Before you sign
Questions worth asking an Irish provider
About the arrangement
- Which Irish entity appears on the employment contract, and what is its company number?
- Does that entity employ directly, or subcontract to a partner it has not named?
- Which PRSI class will the employee be registered under, and why that one?
- Who carries the liability if Revenue or the Workplace Relations Commission takes a different view?
About the money
- Is the fee fixed per head, or a percentage that rises with salary?
- Has the quote been rebuilt on the €552 threshold that applies from January 2026?
- Does it account for both rates changing on 1 October 2026?
- What is excluded — notice pay, redundancy, sick pay, pension, equipment?
- Is a deposit held, how much, and on what event is it returned?
A quote built on last year’s threshold is the fastest way to spot a template. The employer PRSI threshold changed on 1 January 2026. A provider still quoting against the old figure has not revisited its Irish page since, which tells you something about the rest of it.
Where we fit
What we do, and what we do not
We do not act as an Employer of Record in Ireland and we do not have an Irish entity. Nothing on this page is an offer to employ anyone there. It exists because choosing the country comes before choosing the provider, and the country question is answerable from public figures.
What we run is the equivalent machinery in Bulgaria, which is the other end of the same table: monthly accounting for foreign-owned companies from €120 a month, payroll at €20 per employee per month, employment documentation at €450 per employee, VAT registration and filings, and corporate and employment legal work through a lawyer registered with the Blagoevgrad Bar Association.
If Ireland is right for your case, the useful thing we can do is say so and point you at the comparison rather than at ourselves. If the role is one where €12.00 an hour buys the same outcome as €44.20, that is worth knowing before the offer letter goes out.
Questions we are asked
Twelve questions about employing someone in Ireland
How much does an employer pay on top of salary in Ireland?
Employer PRSI is 9 % on weekly earnings up to €552 and 11.25 % above it, under Class A, from 1 January 2026. Both figures rise on 1 October 2026, to 9.15 % and 11.4 %. Across the whole economy that works out at €9.00 of non-wage cost for every €44.20 of labour cost, which is 20.4 %.
What is the €552 threshold?
The weekly earnings line that decides which employer rate applies. At or below it the employer pays 9 %, above it 11.25 %. The threshold increased on 1 January 2026, so quotes prepared before then were built against a lower figure.
Does the employer still pay if the employee earns very little?
Yes. An employee earning €352 a week or less pays no PRSI and stays covered, but the employer’s share is still payable on those earnings. Below €38 a week the employment is not insurable under Class A at all, which is a different situation with different consequences.
What does the employee pay?
4.2 % PRSI on all earnings once weekly pay exceeds €352, a rate in force since 1 October 2025. Between €352.01 and €424 a tapered credit of up to €12 reduces it, falling by one sixth of each euro above €352. Income tax and the Universal Social Charge are separate and also the employee’s.
What is the National Training Fund Levy?
One per cent, and it is already inside the Class A employer contribution rather than billed on top. A quote that presents employer PRSI as 9 or 11.25 per cent has included it.
What is the minimum wage in Ireland?
€14.15 an hour at the full adult rate. Lower rates apply to workers under twenty on a scale by age. An employee cannot agree to be paid less than the rate that applies to them.
How much annual leave is statutory?
Four working weeks for most employees. For irregular hours, entitlement is whichever is greater: 8 % of hours worked capped at four weeks, or one third of a working week for each calendar month with at least 117 hours. An employee reaching 1,365 hours in the leave year takes the full four weeks.
Is Ireland cheaper than Germany or France for employment?
Marginally, and not for the reason people assume. Total labour cost is €44.20 in Ireland, €44.30 in France and €45.00 in Germany — effectively level. The difference is in the split: Irish wages are the highest of the three at €36.60, while the Irish employer contribution is the lightest.
When does an Irish company beat an Employer of Record?
Usually somewhere around the fifth employee, earlier than in most of Europe because Irish incorporation is comparatively simple. At a published fee of €175 per employee per month, ten people cost €21,000 a year before salary. Run the three-year total against what a small Irish company costs to operate.
Can an Employer of Record sponsor an Irish work permit?
Some can, and it is a separate service on a separate timetable. The employment question and the immigration question are not the same question, and merging them is what causes start dates to slip. Ask which entity submits the application, what the current processing time actually is, and what happens to the contract if the permit is refused.
Is Ireland cheap because of its corporate tax rate?
That is the confusion that puts Ireland on most shortlists, and it is a different subject. Corporate tax is charged on company profit. Employer PRSI is charged on payroll. A favourable rate on the first changes nothing in any figure on this page, and it is irrelevant entirely if the Irish presence is one employee rather than a profit centre.
Do you provide Employer of Record services in Ireland?
No. We have no Irish entity and do not employ anyone there. We work in Bulgaria, which sits at the other end of the same cost table at €12.00 an hour. This page is here because the country decision comes first, and it is answerable with published figures rather than sales calls.
Tell us the role, the country and the headcount
What the person will do, where you are considering putting them, and how many you expect within two years. That is enough to say whether an Employer of Record is the right instrument, at what point your own entity becomes cheaper, and whether the country on your shortlist is the one the work actually needs.
Every figure, traced
Sources
- Employer and employee PRSI rates, thresholds and the tapered credit: Citizens Information, Paying social insurance (PRSI).
- PRSI classes, the €38 insurability threshold and the National Training Fund Levy: Department of Social Protection.
- National minimum wage: Citizens Information, Minimum wage.
- Annual leave entitlement and calculation methods: Citizens Information, Annual leave, and the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.
- Minimum notice: Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973.
- Labour cost per hour and the wage/non-wage split: Eurostat, Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity, 2025.
- Published provider fee cited in the text: Boundless, Employer of Record Ireland.
Figures were checked against these pages on 25 August 2026. Irish PRSI rates and thresholds change at least annually, and two of the rates above change on 1 October 2026.
Daniel Malbašić is a business expert with extensive experience in the field of business consulting, organization and business optimization. His expertise includes market analysis, strategic planning, and implementation of effective business solutions. Daniel is dedicated to helping companies grow and improve their operations, providing them with comprehensive support in making key business decisions.