Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 February 2026
45. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if he is planning to reform the national minimum wage legislation to ensure that apprentices and young workers are not paid below the national minimum wage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13127/26]
View answerThe National Minimum Wage Act prescribes the minimum hourly rate of pay for the majority of employees in Ireland, subject to a small number of exemptions.
Pursuant to section 5 of the National Minimum Wage Act, 2000, exemptions from the statutory minimum wage are in place for, inter alia, statutory apprentices.
Apprentices are excluded from the National Minimum Wage Act in recognition of the unique nature of apprenticeships and the fact that a long-established practice for determining rates exists.
Apprenticeships offer a unique combination of education and work experience. When the National Minimum Wage was first introduced it was recognised that providing an exemption for apprentices would promote and encourage employers to focus on training apprentices, and offering opportunities to them, while at the same time recognising the cost to employers in terms of time invested and productivity forgone.
Apprentices are employees and all 78 apprenticeship programmes are undertaken under a contract of employment. For the majority of apprenticeships, the rate of pay is agreed between the apprentice and the employer, with the employer paying the apprentice during both on-the-job and off-the-job training elements. For the 25 craft apprenticeship programmes, the minimum rates of pay applying under the employment contract are either agreed within the relevant sector, or are set out in legally binding Sectoral Employment Orders recommended by the Labour Court.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has commenced a public consultation on the development of a new Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2026-2030. The public consultation seeks the views of all stakeholders on how the apprenticeship system can be improved, made more inclusive, and better aligned with national skills needs.
Any evidence submitted as part of the recent public consultation on the development of the new Apprenticeship Action Plan will inform the development of evidence-based policy on the exemption of apprentices from the National Minimum Wage.
The National Minimum Wage Act also provides for sub-minimum rates for those aged under 20.
Employees aged 18 and 19 are entitled to a sub-minimum rate of 80% and 90% of the full National Minimum Wage respectively. The sub-minimum rates for employees aged under 18 are set at 70% of the National Minimum Wage.
In 2024, following a request that they examine the issue, the Low Pay Commission recommended that sub-minimum youth rates of the National Minimum Wage should be abolished.
The Commission noted that this was a complex issue that requires careful consideration.
In November 2025, an economic impact assessment of the Low Pay Commission’s recommendations was published. This assessment found that while the incidence of sub-minimum rates is low in Ireland, at 26% of total youth employment in 2024, the incidence of sub-minimum rates differs quite widely. Key findings of this study include:
• Youth employment is disproportionately concentrated in the Accommodation & Food and Wholesale & Retail sectors and amongst smaller firms.
• Economy-wide, 46% of employees under the age of 18 are paid a sub-minimum rate, compared to only 19% of 18-year-olds and 6.8% of 19-year-olds.
• Based on the estimate of the number of employees on the youth rate in 2024 and their average hours worked per week, abolishing youth rates would equate to an increase of €51 million in economy wide personnel costs for that year.
• Youth rate personnel costs were estimated to be just 0.13% of total personnel costs to all businesses in Ireland in the same year. If all those on the youth rate were instead on the National Minimum Wage in 2024, personnel costs would increase by 0.04%.
• While the impact of a removal of sub-minimum youth rates would be very small on the overall economy, there would be relatively more significant impacts on firms in certain sectors and regions.
• The impacts would also be more significant on smaller firms.
In April 2025, as part of measures designed to bolster business resilience and support competitiveness, the Government agreed to defer a decision on sub-minimum youth rates until 2029.
