To get into Ireland’s top 1%, you’ll need €123,000 in disposable income

To rank among Ireland’s top 1 per cent of earners, an individual needs to generate €123,200 of disposable income a year, a new study has revealed.The threshold or entry point to the elite earners category in Ireland is the third highest in the EU, research by Berlin-based DataPulse found.Only Luxembourg at €205,420 and Denmark at €135,389 had higher thresholds. Ireland’s entry point is higher than that of Germany (€111,693), the Netherlands (€107,894) and France (€104,743).The findings, which used Eurostat data on disposable income across member states, are part of a wider “European income ladder” study commissioned by lifestyle and travel magazine AMEXcited. READ MOREIt found that Ireland also has the third-highest share of its own population among the EU’s top 1 per cent of earners. Some 2.48 per cent of the Irish population, equating to 134,900 individuals, belong to the EU-wide top 1 per cent category, which has a threshold of €92,200 of annual disposable income per person after taxes and social contributions.Germany and France together account for about 59 per cent of the EU-wide top 1 per cent by income, with roughly 35 per cent in Germany and 24 per cent in France.The report also measured “the gap between the middle and the top”. In Ireland, the top 1 per cent earning threshold, €123,200, was 3½ times the median disposable income of €35,138.This compares to 5½ times in Bulgaria – the highest – and just 2.4 times in Slovakia – the lowest. [ Household wealth in Ireland hits record €1.4tnOpens in new window ]The survey also measured how much EU heads of government and members of national parliaments earn compared to people on median gross incomes in those member states.In Ireland, Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s gross salary – €256,311 a year – was five times that of the gross median income at €51,781.TDs, who get paid €119,467 a year, earned 2.3 times the gross median income.The German chancellor earns €333,704 a year, 6.3 times the German median income at €53,098.Chief executives in EU markets were found to earn between 100 and 700 times median salaries in their respective countries. The best-paid chief executive in Ireland in 2024, according to the report, was Kerry Group chief executive Edmond Scanlon on €6 million, which was 117 times median earnings here.[ CEO pay in Ireland in 2025: One executive earned $237mOpens in new window ]Separate studies suggest former Flutter chief executive Peter Jackson, who stepped down this year, had a bigger salary than Scanlon. At the very top of the DataPulse chart was Lucian Grainge of Universal Music Group in the Netherlands, on €41.1 million a year, which was 690 times the national median earnings. “The best-paid Dutch CEO earns in one year what 690 years of median work would pay,” the report said.The study only considered regular pay components for a single financial year – base salary, annual bonus, pension and benefits – and not severance or one-off special awards.When working time instead of salaries is considered, the gap between company chiefs and average workers looks even starker.Grainge reaches the median Dutch gross monthly earnings in about 11 minutes of work, while the chief executive of the German software giant SAP, Christian Klein, reaches the German median income in about 25 minutes. A German full-time employee on the minimum wage, by contrast, would need about 576 years to reach the SAP chief executive’s pay.