What is Inside the 2026 Guide
Official Statistics Only
Every figure comes from a national statistics office — CSO Ireland, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the UK Office for National Statistics. No scraped job ads, no vendor estimates.
35+ Role-Level Benchmarks
Role-by-role median and mean pay for the US pharmaceutical manufacturing industry (17 roles, BLS) and the UK (18 occupations, ONS ASHE) — from scientists and QA to production operatives.
Irish Sector Earnings, Current Quarter
What Irish sectors actually pay right now from CSO earnings data, with the manufacturing and scientific sectors — where pharma jobs sit — highlighted, plus annual median and top-10% figures.
What Irish Sectors Actually Pay (CSO, Q1 2026)
Average weekly earnings by sector from the CSO's official earnings survey. Most pharma, biotech and MedTech jobs sit in Manufacturing and Professional, scientific & technical — both comfortably above the national average:
| Sector | Avg weekly earnings | ≈ Annualised |
|---|---|---|
| Information & communication Highest-paid sector |
€1,824.62 | €94,900 |
| Financial & insurance | €1,754.26 | €91,200 |
| Electricity, water & waste | €1,343.34 | €69,900 |
| Professional, scientific & technical Includes labs, CROs & consultancies |
€1,311.38 | €68,200 |
| Manufacturing Where most pharma & MedTech jobs sit |
€1,271.04 | €66,100 |
| Public administration & defence | €1,248.66 | €64,900 |
| Education | €1,133.29 | €58,900 |
| All sectors (national average) | €1,075.58 | €55,900 |
| Health & social work | €1,008.43 | €52,400 |
| Construction | €1,027.45 | €53,400 |
Across the year, industry employments in Ireland had a median of €50,000 and a mean of €62,791 in 2024 — against an all-sector national median of €44,816. The top 10% of industry earners had a median of €126,899.
Source: CSO Ireland — Average Weekly Earnings by NACE sector (EHQ03, Q1 2026) and Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data (DEA01, 2024). Creative Commons BY 4.0. CSO publishes sector-level earnings; for role-by-role pharma benchmarks see our US and UK guides built on BLS and ONS occupation data.
Pharma-Specific Earnings (CSO, NACE 21)
The table above uses "Manufacturing" as a proxy, since that's the broadest sector pharma sits in. CSO also publishes a narrower series isolating NACE 21 — Basic pharmaceutical products and preparations specifically: this is that number, not an approximation.
Averaged across the last 4 published quarters (2025Q2–2026Q1) rather than the latest quarter alone — pharma earnings in this series spike sharply every Q1 (bonus/share-award payments concentrated early in the year), so a single quarter overstates typical pay. The most recent individual quarter, 2026Q1, was €2,051.95/week — noticeably above the 4-quarter average for exactly that reason.
Separately, Ireland's pharma sector (NACE 21) reported €58.7 billion in Net Selling Value in 2023 — 42.5% of the country's entire industrial output — per CSO's Irish Industrial Production by Sector release. That figure isn't retrievable through CSO's live data API (the sector-level table stopped updating in 2017, and the current product-level table suppresses most individual pharma rows for confidentiality), so it's cited directly from CSO's own published release rather than a live pull.
Source: CSO Ireland — Average Weekly, Hourly Earnings and Weekly Paid Hours of All Employees by 2-digit NACE sector (EHQ15, 2026Q1); Industrial Enterprises by Sector (AIA30, 2022); Irish Industrial Production by Sector 2023. All Creative Commons BY 4.0.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average pharma salary in Ireland in 2026?
CSO's pharma-specific earnings series (NACE 21, not a sector proxy) averages €1,704.79/week over the last 4 quarters — around €88,600 annualised. The broader Manufacturing sector, where pharma sits alongside other industries, averaged €1,271/week in Q1 2026 (roughly €66,000 annualised), against a national average of €1,076. Across 2024, industry employments had a median of €50,000 and a mean of €62,791.
Which Irish sectors pay the most?
Per the CSO's Q1 2026 earnings survey: Information & communication (€1,825/week) and Financial & insurance (€1,754/week) lead, with Professional, scientific & technical (€1,311) and Manufacturing (€1,271) — the two sectors covering most life science work — well above the €1,076 national average.
How do Irish pharma salaries compare with the UK and US?
Role for role, US pharmaceutical manufacturing pays the most in nominal terms (e.g. median $80,440 for chemists, BLS 2025), with UK medians lower (e.g. £39,983 for chemical scientists, ONS 2025). Ireland's industry median of €50,000 sits between the two once currency is considered — see our US and UK guides for full role tables.
What do the top earners in Irish industry make?
CSO administrative data for 2024 shows the top 10% of industry employments had a median of €126,899, and the top 1% a median of €324,033 — figures dominated by senior management, medical and technical leadership roles.
Why doesn't this guide list role-by-role Irish salaries?
CSO publishes real pharma-specific earnings at the sector level (NACE 21, above) but not broken down by individual occupation within pharma, and we only publish figures from official statistics — no scraped job ads, no vendor estimates. For role-level benchmarks (e.g. what a specific QA specialist or process engineer earns) we point to the US (BLS OEWS, pharma-industry-specific) and UK (ONS ASHE, by occupation) guides — both built from national statistics offices' data.
Is the Salary Guide free to download?
Yes — the PDF databook comparing Ireland, the UK, the US and the EU, built entirely on official statistics, is free. Enter your email to subscribe to the newsletter and the download starts instantly; you can unsubscribe at any time.