HR Salaries In Ireland
From This Archives.
This blog post was first written in 2022. There has been salary growth since then, but there are still some key take-aways.
If you are looking to move purely for financial gains then you may be disappointed. If you are confused about your salary level and your worth if you were to look for a move then feel free to DM me for an honest appraisal.
Here’s my original article…
Candidate: “The market has gone up by 20% so why didn’t I get a raise?”
Right now, there is a misunderstanding in the Irish markets.
There are increasing numbers of people who feel they are underpaid and can get a substantial increase if they move.
There’s a number of reasons why, such as:
Inflation
Cost of Living
Hearsay
Media Messaging
Misleading Articles
The truth is, that companies have budgets, complex salary grades, and an existing workforce that fits into this salary grading structure. If a company breaks its grade and hires someone new at a salary higher than their existing team then what will happen? Eventually, it comes out, the team is infuriated, disengages, morale is destroyed, the team breaks and most of them leave.
I’ve seen this happen.
Now, the smart companies stay strong. They may adjust their overall grades if needed, but they don’t hire new talent above the existing team.
If you look at any overall market trends in Ireland, and take out the Tech sector then it will show relative consistency when it comes to salary growth.
The Tech sector spearheaded the ‘wage growth narrative’, with many organisations experiencing rapid growth, and going on a hiring frenzy, each competing with one another, driving a talent war, which in turn did create salary increases of 20-25%. However, this was in isolation and wasn’t sustainable long-term which is why we are now seeing this sector retracting.
End Of The Wave
Now that there is less noise, companies can continue to hire pragmatically, within budget.
In my opinion, we are at the end of a wave, and there is still some adjusting to be done when it comes to expectations. This does not mean that we are heading into an employment recession, as I mentioned in a previous article, I believe the economy will segment with some areas being more resilient than others.
Whilst inflation and the cost of living aren’t going away, I think our employment markets are more resilient than people think. I predict that we will start to enter a phase of relative consistency when it comes to job creation, not aggressive spikes like we have seen, but not a depression like some expect.
Salaries will trend sideways, so if you have an eye on the market purely for substantial financial gains, you may need to have a re-think.