Could you afford to move to a Minimum Wage Job in Ireland

imme · 17-07-2017 09:43PM #1

Could you afford to move to Ireland for a minimum wage job?

There are frequent reports of late about rising property prices, rising rental prices.

Could you afford to move to Ireland and get by just doing a minimum wage job.

It would sure be difficult, I imagine.

The_Valeyard · 17-07-2017 09:45PM

I actually liked the documentary / comedy show Des Bishop thing about it.

No I could not. It be very difficult if not near impossible.

DontThankMe · 17-07-2017 09:46PM

Yes I could.

Timberrrrrrrr · 17-07-2017 09:47PM

It would depend on where you were moving to in ireland

Pac1Man · 17-07-2017 09:48PM

Yes'm

Permabear · 17-07-2017 09:49PM

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The Backwards Man · 17-07-2017 09:50PM

I'm self employed so I'd probably lose the run of myself with all that disposable cash.

17-07-2017 09:50PM

imme wrote: »

Could you afford to move to Ireland for a minimum wage job?

There are frequent reports of late about rising property prices, rising rental prices.

Could you afford to move to Ireland and get by just doing a minimum wage job.

It would sure be difficult, I imagine.

Whereabouts? Let's look at Drogheda, near Dublin. 40 hours at minimum wage is about 348 a week after tax. Can get a double room in the middle of Drogheda for under 100 a week. Let's call it 100. 20 a week for electricity/internet/bins. Food toiletries etc. let's be generous and say 40 a week. Altogether leaves about 190 per week. Quite doable I'd have said.

Permabear · 17-07-2017 09:55PM

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17-07-2017 09:59PM

Permabear wrote: »

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Small price to pay for living in the greatest and freest country in the history of the world.

Jurgen Klopp · 17-07-2017 10:02PM

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Whereabouts? Let's look at Drogheda, near Dublin. 40 hours at minimum wage is about 348 a week after tax. Can get a double room in the middle of Drogheda for under 100 a week. Let's call it 100. 20 a week for electricity/internet/bins. Food toiletries etc. let's be generous and say 40 a week. Altogether leaves about 190 per week. Quite doable I'd have said.

Wow wouldn't have thought that. What areas is it that have the mental rents so? Genuine question, as Dublin is to me what New York is to Homer Simpson

Senna · 17-07-2017 10:03PM

You can get a double room in a house share in Letterkenny, Donegal for €50 a week. You can have a very comfortable life especially if you live in the town and don't need a car.

17-07-2017 10:03PM

Absolutely not. I don't think I could live on the so-called 'living wage'.

Permabear wrote: »

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Do you have any breakdown of that? I'm not quite sure we are comparing like with like.

bmwguy · 17-07-2017 10:07PM

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I'm self employed so I'd probably lose the run of myself with all that disposable cash.

Me too. Would love a guaranteed 350 every week!

All joking aside, I do earn more than that and I couldn't live on minimum wage.

My expenses at the

Mortgage 220 p/w
Gas and electricity 30 p/w
Motoring incl fuel, tax, insurance, upkeep 150 p/w although this is high because I use it all day for my job. My car helps me make money
Food 50 p/w
Clothing probably averages at 20 p/w

They are all the basics for survival and it's 470 p/w which is well above minimum wage. Its in around the living wage figure i have seen often mentioned.

So if I was on minimum wage I would have to live somewhere cheaper for a start and cut back on motoring expenses to make ends meet. Minimum wage is not easy and I applaud anyone on it for surviving and living frugally but think they should be trying to upskill themselves if possible.

In addition to these basics I pay into a pension, spend money socialising, going for weekends away, holidays and events plus save money. No kids yet. Girlfriend dumped me for starting up my own business and never being around and not wanting to ever move back to England with her so no kids in near future anyway!

I am self employed as I said and I have 3 seperate income streams that I worked bloody hard to build up and develop to where they are today. I was on minimum wage when younger alright but didn't have any of the expenses I have now and I was fine.

So the answer is it depends on your outgoings.
If I lived in a cheap part of Ireland and didn't need a car I think I could manage it as I don't really have an overly lavish lifestyle

Wheeliebin30 · 17-07-2017 10:15PM

Plenty of people survive on minimum wage already in Ireland.

So of course it possible.

Yourself isit · 17-07-2017 10:16PM

bmwguy wrote: »

Me too. Would love a guaranteed 350 every week!

All joking aside, I do earn more than that and I couldn't live on minimum wage.

My expenses at the

Mortgage 220 p/w
Gas and electricity 30 p/w
Motoring incl fuel, tax, insurance, upkeep 150 p/w although this is high because I use it all day for my job. My car helps me make money
Food 50 p/w
Clothing probably averages at 20 p/w

They are all the basics for survival and it's 470 p/w which is well above minimum wage. Its in around the living wage figure i have seen often mentioned.

So if I was on minimum wage I would have to live somewhere cheaper for a start and cut back on motoring expenses to make ends meet. Minimum wage is not easy and I applaud anyone on it for surviving and living frugally but think they should be trying to upskill themselves if possible.

In addition to these basics I pay into a pension, spend money socialising, going for weekends away, holidays and events plus save money. No kids yet. Girlfriend dumped me for starting up my own business and never being around and not wanting to ever move back to England with her so no kids in near future anyway!

I am self employed as I said and I have 3 seperate income streams that I worked bloody hard to build up and develop to where they are today. I was on minimum wage when younger alright but didn't have any of the expenses I have now and I was fine.

So the answer is it depends on your outgoings.
If I lived in a cheap part of Ireland and didn't need a car I think I could manage it as I don't really have an overly lavish lifestyle

You could reduce travel costs by selling the BMW.

Ba ding tosh

KwackerJack · 17-07-2017 10:18PM

Yes.....if I was single with no kids. No social life, no holidays, no luxuries and not living in dublin

You would simply exist....that's it

To me work is a means to have a good comfortable, stress free (money wise) life with all the luxuries like holidays in good places, lots of family day's out, good food in decent restaurants, nice car, nice house etc

If I can't have those by working then why work, why not go on the social and just live day to day.

I wasn't great in school but I worked and studied hard for what I have and thankfully I'm quite comfortable now.........nobody should settle for the minimum wage, work hard and it will pay off

noodler · 17-07-2017 10:19PM

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Plenty of people survive on minimum wage already in Ireland.

So of course it possible.

Most who earn it aren't actually reliant on it as their sole income.

Alot of part timers with a spousal income and alot of students.

CSO did a special module on it earlier in the year.

Its a tough ask in Dublin. Outside Dublin it is certainly doable.

bmwguy · 17-07-2017 10:20PM

Yourself isit wrote: »

You could reduce travel costs by selling the BMW.

Ba ding tosh

And buying what exactly? The BMW is 10 years old and I don't have a loan or finance on it. Changing it would save minimal amounts to be honest.

SCOOP 64 · 17-07-2017 10:22PM

KwackerJack wrote: »

Yes.....if I was single with no kids. No social life, no holidays, no luxuries and not living in dublin

You would simply exist....that's it

To me work is a means to have a good comfortable, stress free (money wise) life with all the luxuries like holidays in good places, lots of family day's out, good food in decent restaurants, nice car, nice house etc

If I can't have those by working then why work, why not go on the social and just live day to day.

I wasn't great in school but I worked and studied hard for what I have and thankfully I'm quite comfortable now.........nobody should settle for the minimum wage, work hard and it will pay off

My mum and dad worked hard all there lives and still couldn't afford the above, hard work alone don't make you well off.

Permabear · 17-07-2017 10:24PM

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the_pen_turner · 17-07-2017 10:32PM

yes definetly.
a pay increase would be nice.
I'm self employed . my weeks turn over looks good for 40 hours until you take off all the overheads and add in all the xtra hours that cant be billed out to the customer(loading van, going to accountant, lodging money etc) . if you worked it out properly I'm not earning minimum wage or even close to it

Peregrine · 17-07-2017 11:23PM

I know plenty of people who moved to Dublin to work on minimum wage. It's not easy but they still see it as an improvement.

_Roz_ · 18-07-2017 09:14AM

I've often lived (while renting) on minimum wage or even the dole. Dole wasn't comfortable, but managable, so the extra few hundred quid of minimum wage for a full working week - I wasn't saving anything, but I was living just fine.

LollipopJimmy · 18-07-2017 09:21AM

While rents are skyrocketing in Dublin this is partially down to the fact that city centre houses and apartments are overcrowded.
I was involved in the recruitment of 50 people onto an 'entry level' job, not minimum and this attracted a lot of applicants who had just arrived in Ireland, some of the things I heard about living arrangements made my toenails curl.

A one bed in the city with 8 people living in it was one

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater · 18-07-2017 09:21AM

You cut your cloth to measure. 11 years ago, I worked a minimum wage job. I was 21 at the time and I had an absolute ball. I still managed at least 3 nights out a week. God knows I did without a lot of things that I wouldn't give up now though (a car, Sky TV, proper broadband, trips away, nicer clothes).

I could afford it, but my lifestyle would take a dramatic drop.

Lollipops23 · 18-07-2017 10:09AM

I've only just attained the wages/lifestyle that I'm happy with in the last year tbh. It was a long, hard road and I sucked it up in sh*tty jobs for a long time (inc a stint working in a bookies on close to min wage for 9 months when I graduated and there were no prospects).

I changed jobs 6 months ago; I was working in a Big 4 company and was DEEPLY unhappy. I made up my mind to leave and was willing to take a 2-3k salary hit to make that happen. In the end I was actually lucky enough to get a job that paid 2k more than my salary at the time. I now earn a decent/respectable wage-certainly not well off but doing ok.

If there is a another major recession down the line, obviously all bets are off. But right now I couldn't sustain my hard-won lifestyle (and it's certainly nothing insane, I don't buy designer clothes or drive a BMW) on min wage.

mick_ser · 18-07-2017 10:10AM

It all depends on where you live....Dublin would be very difficult I imagine but in most other places with a lower cost of living it's possible

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 18-07-2017 10:12AM

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

Plenty of people survive on minimum wage already in Ireland.

So of course it possible.

"What would you like to be when you grow up"

"I would like to survive..."

Very important word there, survive. Some life ambition... :rolleyes:

Cina · 18-07-2017 10:17AM

Minimum wage is about €350 per week(ish) after tax.

I'd say that's more than enough to live comfortably in a smaller, more remote town in Ireland (if you're single without kids, can't really speak for families), but not really enough to live in Dublin without struggling a bit.

Like just about every other developed country, really.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 18-07-2017 10:34AM

bmwguy wrote: »

And buying what exactly? The BMW is 10 years old and I don't have a loan or finance on it. Changing it would save minimal amounts to be honest.

Yea, but it's a BMW. Regardless of logic or how much it's costing, the fact that you own a BMW just isn't on. You need to sell it for what it's worth and purchase a smaller car, like a ford fiesta for about 6K (5 years old), your comfort is not important. You just need to convince your neighbors that you are not very well off, and you can't do that driving a 10 year old BMW...

Could you afford to move to a Minimum Wage Job in Ireland

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