The Guardian newspaper recently described Ireland’s well paid public sector workers not as fat Cats – but Morbidly Obese Cats.
It was hoped that maybe some of the high earners would end up getting a bit less after Budget 2011.
The changes in the Budget to PRSI and Tax as well as the new Social Charge – will result in a drop in take-home pay for the majority of workers in Ireland.
For example – a single person on €25k a year will see a drop in annual take home pay of €989 – a cut of 4.6%
However – someone employed in a job with the same pay as the head of ESB – which is €752,568 a year will see monthly take home pay drop from €31,276 to €31,030 – which is a drop of just €246 – or 0.008%.
In percentage terms – the effect on the minimum wage person is over 400 times more than the cut to the head of ESB.
The discrepancy gets worse – high earning self employed people will end up with more net pay after the changes in this Budget. A single self employed person with gross salary of more than €200000 will end up with more. The higher the earnings – the bigger the increase in take home pay.
Someone who is self employed with a salary the same as the head of ESB – €752,568 – would have had a monthly net pay before the Budget 2011 of €29,490 .
After all the Budget changes to PRSI, Tax , Levies and USC – they will end up taking home €30,871 a month – an increase of €1381 .
Fat Cats getting Fatter?