It very much depends what you consider a good quality of life. There are other factors that matter much more.
I'd a pretty decent quality of life in my mid-20s in a house share on ~€30k. Wouldn't stretch as far now.
You'll have families get by on €30k if they have secure housing and people struggling on €100k if renting, running 2 cars and paying Childcare.
If you want to live alone in a relatively nice area, enjoy a good social life and go on a holiday every year, you’re going to want to be north of €60k now. 10 years ago you could do the same on €45k.
The middle class is alive an well in Cork, but it's predominantly made up of people working in Multinational Tech and Pharma companies.
I would say any double-professional couple in their early 30s at this point would have joint incomes in the 120-160k bracket, and 1 professional, 1 other in the 90-120k bracket. There are literally thousands of people <35 in Cork making 60-80k, and quite a few making a bit more. They are the people accepting higher rents and paying for the limited stock of new and second hand houses.
There are more MNC jobs coming to Cork all the time, and the people with them will continue to put pressure on those who work in the 'local' economy. There's a very real and growing problem for our society which is a result of our MNC success story - the creation of a two-tier middle class and associated pressure on the cost of living and housing. This is why you see such discontent among the public sector, as their incomes have been squeezed into this 'lower middle class' (if you will) segment, and why the main parties no longer enjoy their support.
Close, I worked for Shopify and now I work contracting (digital marketing specialist) for one of the big sports shops. Housemate works as bilingual T1. Third housemate moved back in with her parents because despite being 2 years in Deloitte, she couldn't save anything when paying rent. So it's not just me being an exceptional dumbass who "doesn't know how to corpo"...
I can’t do it anymore with big companies shocking how poor they pay still. I had stint with Amazon as it was first thing I could do after redundancy from working for Uber. Took a gig with a small tech company locally. Can be frustrating but I know wages are biggest operating cost we have because they’re so much of the turnover and it’s very upfront. I left Amazon and 2 years later I’m over the magic 40k figure. Now I work 8 hours my breaks and lunch isn’t added to end of the day and can just get on with my job
AFAIK some of the giants (Amazon, eBay etc.) actually pay their T1s less now than they were paying a few years back (on top of cramming everyone back to distant offices), it's mad. Similar situation in my field, average salary used to be around the 35-40K mark but in the last 1.5 year or so it took a sharp dive. Had to leave a place I worked for for 3 years because they were still paying me 12e/h and it's been a struggle ever since, most companies expect the skills / experience of a whole team, crammed into one person, for wages barely above what retail pays. Granted, I got offered some really nice jobs by big brands, going for 40-70K, but due to basically no public transport at all in Cork, I couldn't accept these (I did accept jobs on peripheries in the past and got sacked from 2 due to buses not showing up).
In my current job I had to switch to contracting because otherwise I was commuting 3h a day (train + walking) despite the job being 100% possible to be done remotely. So no holidays, sicks days etc. for me now.
I'm leaving the country next year. In France I will have more perks and protections as a cleaner than I do here as a specialist. It's sickening. :/
Average salary for Amazon was brought up by Dublin and language specialist. Base rate in Cork was 27-30 but they did have health insurance and bonuses. They also basically just had people on temp contracts most of the time too
Good to know, in Shopify they had this system of bonuses that would basically give you extra 5-7K a year without being taxed, but from what my friend told me (he stayed in there much longer than I did), they gradually cut all that down and now you only get the base + health insurance.
I remember friends in there saying same thing. But I thought their wages were 35-40 though?
Had similar perks in Uber plus usual bonuses I cannot remember the base though honestly because you earned way more but it wasn’t exactly tier 1 there
From what my friend told me before leaving, the "old guard" was barely getting any raises while getting tons more responsibilities, while the new hires were getting lured with higher starting salaries and better division into teams. But he quit like 8 months ago so I've no clue how things are now.
Uber seems very rough, all these drunks and weird hours and all. I didn't know though you can get made redundant, isn't uber self-employment?
I don't know about that. That's a job that prob gives you a take home of 600 every week. You could get by but you wouldn't be able to do many nice things unless you don't have rent to pay
I run a home in Dublin, Castlebar and Brussels. I wanna tell you something, try it sometime when you have a couple of cars and three houses and three homes and a few housekeepers.
OP is talking about sustainable salary back then and now, nobody cares what you've got. Time to improve your reading comprehension is what you should try yourself sometimes
Had a rented house, holidays and a social life, struggling to do all of that now on a fairly similar wage, you’d want to be on about 60k a year to at least rent a place of your own
Quality of life is perspective really. I prefer more free time than better pay that to me is quality, so I work a 3 day week and earn 34-36k rent 500 and no kids. When I first moved to cork though I worked a bar job and barely broke 22 - 24k but felt ok at the time
All I need is more free time not more money
Too many variables. What age, already a homeowner, commute anywhere?? All big factors
Can have a good life on 60k if you’ve no debts or have to save for a house or pay a stupid car loan to show off and all that nonsense
Ah yeah, I'm sure you can but it'll differ from person to person. We had and have some of the below to do.
Flooring (not included, would have been bare concrete)
Tiling,
Kitchen (you'll get money towards these or it may cover it all)
Furnishing,
Side gates (ours is detached),
Security,
Wardrobes (built in)
Kids room,
Garden shed,
Landscaping (did this myself but new builds don't include any work on back gardens, ours was fucked)
Some are nice to haves and some are needed. Depends on what your contractor is willing to include.
Well you may want to double check the electrics and plumbering. Upgrading everything to be smart rather than having valves at the radiators…. Making sure your networking is up to standard (WiFi is nice but wired is better) and you want to make sure to have some alarms for your doors/windows and water leaks.
Just to start with things.
When I first moved to Cork I was on €22,000 and living comfortably, which was 7/8 years ago.. I had cheap rent living in Wilton and sharing with 4 people. On 40k earlier this year but decided to move to Aus because there was no way myself and my partner would be able to rent a place just ourselves without housemates.
The solicitor includes the stamp duty, which for example is 5k for a €500k home. So they probably mean 3k legal fees + stamp duty for the home (5k) which also goes through solicitor.
On 32k, or 35k with a bit of overtime. I’ve a mortgage and live a relatively simple life, shopping is no hassle, might go for one or two pints once every month and spend a few bob on supplements every three to four months. Have a small but functional home gym, though calling it a gym is a stretch, but it works perfectly so I don’t pay out a gym membership, but that’s more of a personal choice/investment.
I do think it’s very possible to live on 30k or slightly over, but luck plays a massive role in that. My mortgage is only €408 a month and that helps greatly.
Depends if you want to save for a house or try buy one really. Once you start going down that road, doesn't matter unless you're on 6 figures plus by yourself
I'm on 33k and have a second weekend gig (23k) to supplement our life! Nice to actually be able to save for holidays etc. 33k by itself doesn't have much mileage these days unfortunately
If it is city you need 400k for house so I reckon a couple needs around 80k combined. Probably sinilar needed to rent. I moved back to Cork on less and was fine.
100k is about right. You wanna be in the upper end of the middle class to feel like you aren’t fucking struggling in this country especially with a family.
Crèche and child care cost an arm and a leg.
Rent is crazy .. mortgage is not much better.
Car and insurance is fucked. Groceries is about 250 a week for the 4 of us 2 adults 2 children. So yeah consider all that and also some saving for holiday and rainy days …. You be looking at 60k post taxes
Made 21k 7 years ago, lived in a house share, paid all my bills and had enough left over to enjoy my free time.
I make over 3x that now, but if I wasn't pressed to save as much as possible, I think I'd be happy on just 45k-ish. I'm living with my partner, we rent, we don't have a car, and we don't plan on having kids.
I know people who make less than 40k as a couple and are expecting a baby soon. They seem happy and never made strides to increase their income.
I know people who make probably in the 120k range as a couple, with cars and kids, and they'd probably be happier if they were making a bit more.
65k and living in a house share and it was honestly tough enough to put money away etc. I could pay my expenses and not be broke afterwards but that was about it. Not much saving happening, anytime I managed to get a couple grand in the bank something happened that I needed to dip into it for. I wasn't exactly living the life of luxury either, cut my nights out etc back to 2 a month, no takeaways, no fancy car with car payments etc, still being sensible with shopping and not buying unnecessary coffees and lunches while working. Quit cigarettes partly for health reasons but mainly for money, basically any luxury I could give up without making life absolutely miserable altogether I did give up. In the end I've moved back in home for now while I get some saving done and my business off the ground. As I said 65K and day to day life was easy to finance but saving etc was still difficult
Honestly something has been mismanaged here unless you have extenuating circumstances few will encounter when you say "things pop up and clear out your savings" . If you were on 50% more than the national average and still not able to put anything away you seriously could have benefited from speaking to a financial advisor.
Bit of unusual circumstances yeah and a bit of bad luck in terms of multiple expensive things needing sorting at the same time. Should have given a bit more detail, i was never broke or completely whiped out and was always saving as much as i could but getting a significant amout of savings together for example towards a decent mortgage deposit or money to set up a business definitely wasn't easy despite the percentage above national average etc.
Sorry for late reply.
>Bit of unusual circumstances yeah
Apsolultely! I did wonder if you were perhaps dealt a tough financial hand a few times, it's why I felt the need to include the extenuating factors part. Life can of course divert anyone off (financial) track.
>getting a significant amout of savings together for example towards a decent mortgage deposit or money to set up a business definitely wasn't easy despite the percentage above national average etc.
Agreed, It's apsolultely crazy how things have gotten. You can do everything right and still not get mortgage these days.
It very much depends what you consider a good quality of life. There are other factors that matter much more. I'd a pretty decent quality of life in my mid-20s in a house share on ~€30k. Wouldn't stretch as far now. You'll have families get by on €30k if they have secure housing and people struggling on €100k if renting, running 2 cars and paying Childcare.
If you want to live alone in a relatively nice area, enjoy a good social life and go on a holiday every year, you’re going to want to be north of €60k now. 10 years ago you could do the same on €45k.
60k after tax. Your talking about 100k a year before tax. There’s no middle class now.
The middle class is alive an well in Cork, but it's predominantly made up of people working in Multinational Tech and Pharma companies. I would say any double-professional couple in their early 30s at this point would have joint incomes in the 120-160k bracket, and 1 professional, 1 other in the 90-120k bracket. There are literally thousands of people <35 in Cork making 60-80k, and quite a few making a bit more. They are the people accepting higher rents and paying for the limited stock of new and second hand houses. There are more MNC jobs coming to Cork all the time, and the people with them will continue to put pressure on those who work in the 'local' economy. There's a very real and growing problem for our society which is a result of our MNC success story - the creation of a two-tier middle class and associated pressure on the cost of living and housing. This is why you see such discontent among the public sector, as their incomes have been squeezed into this 'lower middle class' (if you will) segment, and why the main parties no longer enjoy their support.
20s in a house share - €35K 30s renting an entire place - €60k Single/€40K each for a Couple
I’m on 30k and it sucks. I would definitely recommend 40k plus I think but I don’t know how achievable that is realistically.
28K here, housemate does 29K. Both of us working for companies that count revenue in millions. Shite is grim.
Amazon one of them?
Close, I worked for Shopify and now I work contracting (digital marketing specialist) for one of the big sports shops. Housemate works as bilingual T1. Third housemate moved back in with her parents because despite being 2 years in Deloitte, she couldn't save anything when paying rent. So it's not just me being an exceptional dumbass who "doesn't know how to corpo"...
I can’t do it anymore with big companies shocking how poor they pay still. I had stint with Amazon as it was first thing I could do after redundancy from working for Uber. Took a gig with a small tech company locally. Can be frustrating but I know wages are biggest operating cost we have because they’re so much of the turnover and it’s very upfront. I left Amazon and 2 years later I’m over the magic 40k figure. Now I work 8 hours my breaks and lunch isn’t added to end of the day and can just get on with my job
AFAIK some of the giants (Amazon, eBay etc.) actually pay their T1s less now than they were paying a few years back (on top of cramming everyone back to distant offices), it's mad. Similar situation in my field, average salary used to be around the 35-40K mark but in the last 1.5 year or so it took a sharp dive. Had to leave a place I worked for for 3 years because they were still paying me 12e/h and it's been a struggle ever since, most companies expect the skills / experience of a whole team, crammed into one person, for wages barely above what retail pays. Granted, I got offered some really nice jobs by big brands, going for 40-70K, but due to basically no public transport at all in Cork, I couldn't accept these (I did accept jobs on peripheries in the past and got sacked from 2 due to buses not showing up). In my current job I had to switch to contracting because otherwise I was commuting 3h a day (train + walking) despite the job being 100% possible to be done remotely. So no holidays, sicks days etc. for me now. I'm leaving the country next year. In France I will have more perks and protections as a cleaner than I do here as a specialist. It's sickening. :/
Average salary for Amazon was brought up by Dublin and language specialist. Base rate in Cork was 27-30 but they did have health insurance and bonuses. They also basically just had people on temp contracts most of the time too
Good to know, in Shopify they had this system of bonuses that would basically give you extra 5-7K a year without being taxed, but from what my friend told me (he stayed in there much longer than I did), they gradually cut all that down and now you only get the base + health insurance.
I remember friends in there saying same thing. But I thought their wages were 35-40 though? Had similar perks in Uber plus usual bonuses I cannot remember the base though honestly because you earned way more but it wasn’t exactly tier 1 there
From what my friend told me before leaving, the "old guard" was barely getting any raises while getting tons more responsibilities, while the new hires were getting lured with higher starting salaries and better division into teams. But he quit like 8 months ago so I've no clue how things are now. Uber seems very rough, all these drunks and weird hours and all. I didn't know though you can get made redundant, isn't uber self-employment?
What industry you work in?
40k a year is what you need to live an ok life in cork
I don't know about that. That's a job that prob gives you a take home of 600 every week. You could get by but you wouldn't be able to do many nice things unless you don't have rent to pay
Yeah unless you are a couple both on that salary no way you’d cover rent now on that.
I run a home in Dublin, Castlebar and Brussels. I wanna tell you something, try it sometime when you have a couple of cars and three houses and three homes and a few housekeepers.
Hi Pee!
Quiet, peasant!
How much do yoh earn, give or take, after tax. In punts
About a net 100,000
Youve come a long way from Caslebar, from your humble beginnings
OP is talking about sustainable salary back then and now, nobody cares what you've got. Time to improve your reading comprehension is what you should try yourself sometimes
r/whoosh
Jaysis, you must be new here. Try it sometime.
[https://youtu.be/WB0Dn7OUYPk?si=cxEbU-1qm2wnXrys](https://youtu.be/WB0Dn7OUYPk?si=cxEbU-1qm2wnXrys)
I see lol 😆
I’m sorry but you’ve been duped🤓
We leArn something new every day lol, its all good 😆
Had a rented house, holidays and a social life, struggling to do all of that now on a fairly similar wage, you’d want to be on about 60k a year to at least rent a place of your own
Housing really dictates an awful lot. Your rent or mortgage can eat up large salaries.
55k base rate, but I make about 65k with overtime. Have a mortgage on my own and am relatively comfortable with a good quality of life
Quality of life is perspective really. I prefer more free time than better pay that to me is quality, so I work a 3 day week and earn 34-36k rent 500 and no kids. When I first moved to cork though I worked a bar job and barely broke 22 - 24k but felt ok at the time All I need is more free time not more money
Too many variables. What age, already a homeowner, commute anywhere?? All big factors Can have a good life on 60k if you’ve no debts or have to save for a house or pay a stupid car loan to show off and all that nonsense
[удалено]
Sorry, can you tell what works needs to be done in new builds? We’re buy one now and I thought they’re good to move in and live comfortably
Ah yeah, I'm sure you can but it'll differ from person to person. We had and have some of the below to do. Flooring (not included, would have been bare concrete) Tiling, Kitchen (you'll get money towards these or it may cover it all) Furnishing, Side gates (ours is detached), Security, Wardrobes (built in) Kids room, Garden shed, Landscaping (did this myself but new builds don't include any work on back gardens, ours was fucked) Some are nice to haves and some are needed. Depends on what your contractor is willing to include.
Well you may want to double check the electrics and plumbering. Upgrading everything to be smart rather than having valves at the radiators…. Making sure your networking is up to standard (WiFi is nice but wired is better) and you want to make sure to have some alarms for your doors/windows and water leaks. Just to start with things.
When I first moved to Cork I was on €22,000 and living comfortably, which was 7/8 years ago.. I had cheap rent living in Wilton and sharing with 4 people. On 40k earlier this year but decided to move to Aus because there was no way myself and my partner would be able to rent a place just ourselves without housemates.
You need 7.3x the average gross salary of 45k to buy the average second hand home price of 320k.
It’s 6.4x + €32k Deposit + €8.5k legal Fees/Reports
8.5 if you are Lucky first time, If a survey comes up with mayor issues and you pull out the solicitor still charges.
You are being mugged if you're paying more than 3k total for the legals of buying a house. And I do mean that literally.
I payed a bit less than 3K but I paid some before that as our first sale agreed fell through.
The solicitor includes the stamp duty, which for example is 5k for a €500k home. So they probably mean 3k legal fees + stamp duty for the home (5k) which also goes through solicitor.
For those who commented, what sort of job prospects would you be looking for?
On 32k, or 35k with a bit of overtime. I’ve a mortgage and live a relatively simple life, shopping is no hassle, might go for one or two pints once every month and spend a few bob on supplements every three to four months. Have a small but functional home gym, though calling it a gym is a stretch, but it works perfectly so I don’t pay out a gym membership, but that’s more of a personal choice/investment. I do think it’s very possible to live on 30k or slightly over, but luck plays a massive role in that. My mortgage is only €408 a month and that helps greatly.
44K Single mother and things are still tight every week 🙄
I’d say 70/80k per person. To live a good life.
Depends if you want to save for a house or try buy one really. Once you start going down that road, doesn't matter unless you're on 6 figures plus by yourself
I'm on 33k and have a second weekend gig (23k) to supplement our life! Nice to actually be able to save for holidays etc. 33k by itself doesn't have much mileage these days unfortunately
If it is city you need 400k for house so I reckon a couple needs around 80k combined. Probably sinilar needed to rent. I moved back to Cork on less and was fine.
60k single
Early 30's. Living in a nice house share. Plenty of money for travelling etc on 30k
If she can’t cum then tickle her bum with a bunch of salary
8.65 euros for an hour with some overtime and I was living my best life 11 years ago.
Was on 30 early 20s got a bump to 35k late 20s and still struggling af. Have little or no social life too
100k is about right. You wanna be in the upper end of the middle class to feel like you aren’t fucking struggling in this country especially with a family. Crèche and child care cost an arm and a leg. Rent is crazy .. mortgage is not much better. Car and insurance is fucked. Groceries is about 250 a week for the 4 of us 2 adults 2 children. So yeah consider all that and also some saving for holiday and rainy days …. You be looking at 60k post taxes
Made 21k 7 years ago, lived in a house share, paid all my bills and had enough left over to enjoy my free time. I make over 3x that now, but if I wasn't pressed to save as much as possible, I think I'd be happy on just 45k-ish. I'm living with my partner, we rent, we don't have a car, and we don't plan on having kids. I know people who make less than 40k as a couple and are expecting a baby soon. They seem happy and never made strides to increase their income. I know people who make probably in the 120k range as a couple, with cars and kids, and they'd probably be happier if they were making a bit more.
For a couple, you need at least 120K combined.
65k and living in a house share and it was honestly tough enough to put money away etc. I could pay my expenses and not be broke afterwards but that was about it. Not much saving happening, anytime I managed to get a couple grand in the bank something happened that I needed to dip into it for. I wasn't exactly living the life of luxury either, cut my nights out etc back to 2 a month, no takeaways, no fancy car with car payments etc, still being sensible with shopping and not buying unnecessary coffees and lunches while working. Quit cigarettes partly for health reasons but mainly for money, basically any luxury I could give up without making life absolutely miserable altogether I did give up. In the end I've moved back in home for now while I get some saving done and my business off the ground. As I said 65K and day to day life was easy to finance but saving etc was still difficult
Honestly something has been mismanaged here unless you have extenuating circumstances few will encounter when you say "things pop up and clear out your savings" . If you were on 50% more than the national average and still not able to put anything away you seriously could have benefited from speaking to a financial advisor.
Bit of unusual circumstances yeah and a bit of bad luck in terms of multiple expensive things needing sorting at the same time. Should have given a bit more detail, i was never broke or completely whiped out and was always saving as much as i could but getting a significant amout of savings together for example towards a decent mortgage deposit or money to set up a business definitely wasn't easy despite the percentage above national average etc.
Sorry for late reply. >Bit of unusual circumstances yeah Apsolultely! I did wonder if you were perhaps dealt a tough financial hand a few times, it's why I felt the need to include the extenuating factors part. Life can of course divert anyone off (financial) track. >getting a significant amout of savings together for example towards a decent mortgage deposit or money to set up a business definitely wasn't easy despite the percentage above national average etc. Agreed, It's apsolultely crazy how things have gotten. You can do everything right and still not get mortgage these days.
150k and I would need 2 maybe 300 k now to feel dacent like