Chapter 4 of 10 · Pay and hours · Rule-change tracker
Employment law in Ireland, 2026: what changed, what is coming, and what is still only a proposal
Checked 13 Oct 2026the Irish Statute Book, the Departments' pages and the WRC.
In 2026 the minimum wage rose to €14.15, auto-enrolment pensions (My Future Fund) started on 1 January, statutory sick pay stayed at five days after the planned rise was paused, Maternity, Paternity and Parent's Benefit rose to €299 a week, and the right to work to 66 past a contractual retirement age commenced on 29 June. The Pay Transparency Directive's 7 June deadline was missed and transposition is promised in phases. This page keeps what is in force apart from what is not.
Key dates each year
Minimum wage order
1 January each year
Budget day
October each year: wage, benefit and tax figures for the following January
WRC Annual Report
April each year
The quarterly verification routine re-reads every block above against the Acts, and the rules config is re-read on every Budget and 1 January.
What changed in 2026
Minimum wage €14.15 · from 1 January 2026
From 1 January 2026 the national minimum wage is €14.15 an hour for those aged 20 and over, €12.74 at 19, €11.32 at 18 and €9.91 under 18.
Auto-enrolment pensions live · from 1 January 2026
My Future Fund enrols employees aged 23 to 60 earning €20,000 or more who are not in a qualifying scheme; contributions of 1.5% each from employee and employer plus a State top-up, rising in steps.
Family benefits €299 a week · from 1 January 2026
Maternity, Paternity, Parent's and Adoptive Benefit rose to €299 a week from January 2026 after Budget 2026.
Right to work to 66 · from 29 June 2026
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 commenced on 29 June 2026: an employee can notify, three to twelve months ahead, an intention to work past a contractual retirement age below 66, which the employer can refuse only where objectively justified.
Gender pay gap portal · from 1 November 2026
Employers with 50 or more staff report through the central portal for the November 2026 cycle.
What did not change
Statutory sick pay: still 5 days a year at 70% of pay capped at €110 a day. The planned rise to 7 and 10 days was paused in 2025 and has not resumed.
The WRC six-month time limit, extendable to twelve only for reasonable cause.
Statutory redundancy: two weeks' pay per year of service plus one week, capped at €600 a week, tax-free.
The minimum notice bands of 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks.
Annual leave: the greatest of four weeks for 1,365 hours, one third of a week per month of 117 hours, or 8% of hours worked.
What is being tracked
Statutory sick pay: any order raising the 5 days
Paused at 5 days
What it affects: The number of days the sick pay calculator pays at 70% up to €110. The Act allows the Minister to raise the days by order; the planned 7 (2025) and 10 (2026) were paused.
20 July 2022 · Done
Sick Leave Act 2022 signed, 3 days from 1 January 2023
The Act set a path of 3, 5, 7 and 10 days, each step by ministerial order.
The Government decided in 2025 not to proceed with the rise to 7 days, after an ESRI review of the cost to employers. Five days remains the entitlement at 13 October 2026.
What it affects: Pay ranges in job advertisements, the right to ask for the pay levels of colleagues doing equal work, and a ban on asking about pay history. None of it applies until an Act or regulations are made.
The Department of Enterprise indicated a phased approach. No General Scheme had been published at 13 October 2026. Law-firm commentary (McCann FitzGerald, Mason Hayes & Curran, Maples) tracks the delay.
What it affects: The rate the minimum wage checker applies from 1 January 2027. It is entered in the rules config with an effectiveFrom date as soon as the order is made, and the engine switches on the day.
Auto-enrolment: contribution steps and opt-out windows
Live since 1 January 2026
What it affects: The percentages taken from pay and the windows in which an employee can opt out. The first step rise is due in year four; any change to the schedule or the windows is recorded here.
9 July 2024 · Done
Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 signed
Set the scheme's shape: ages 23 to 60, €20,000 earnings threshold, contributions rising in steps to 6%.
Remote-working Code of Practice and the Work Life Balance Act review
Code in force; 2026 review of the Act awaited
What it affects: What an employer must do with a request for remote or flexible working, and what the WRC can look at. A revised Code or a change to the Act would alter the remote-working guide.
7 March 2024 · Done
WRC Code of Practice on the right to request flexible and remote working published
Gave effect to Part 4 of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023.
Employment Permits Act 2024: commencements that affect employees
Mirrored from StampWise
What it affects: A permit holder's ability to change employer, the seasonal permit, and the labour-market test. The permit itself is StampWise's subject; this site links rather than duplicates.
2 September 2024 · Now
Most of the Act commenced
Including the ability to change employer after nine months on a General or Critical Skills permit. StampWise tracks the rest.
Budget 2027: Maternity, Paternity, Parent's and Illness Benefit rates
Budget day October 2026
What it affects: The weekly benefit figures in the leave planner and the sick pay calculator from January 2027. Entered in the rules config with an effectiveFrom date once the Social Welfare Act is passed.
1 January 2026 · Done
€299 a week in force
Budget 2026 raised the family benefits by €10 to €299 from January 2026.
WRC Annual Report: complaints, categories and the wait for a hearing
Published each April
What it affects: The figures on /wrc and the home page: 10,559 applications in 2025, up 44%, with a median wait to a first hearing of 174 days by December 2025.
30 April 2026 · Now
Annual Report 2025 published
Figures taken from law-firm and chamber summaries; the first job of the routine is to read the PDF and confirm them.
Checked daily against the official record first. Each entry links the source it came from and says which kind it is.
6 October 2026 · Official record
Budget 2027: minimum wage to rise 79c to €14.94
Budget 2027, delivered 6 October, includes a 79 cent rise in the National Minimum Wage, confirmed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Irish Times reports this brings the rate to about €14.94 an hour from 1 January 2027. The Low Pay Commission recommended the same rise in July; no National Minimum Wage Order for 2027 has yet been made.
Budget 2027: core welfare rates to rise €10 a week
The Irish Times reports that Budget 2027, delivered 6 October, raises core weekly social welfare rates by €10 from January 2027, with the State pension passing €300. It is not yet confirmed whether Maternity, Paternity, Parent's and Illness Benefit are among the payments affected; official Department of Social Protection figures were not available to check against.
The Irish Times reports that 29,352 people, under 4% of those enrolled, left My Future Fund during its first opt-out window, which opened 1 July and ran to the end of August 2026. For comparison, the article cites opt-out rates of about 10% in the UK and 12% in New Zealand.
First check of the Irish Statute Book, the Department of Enterprise, the Department of Social Protection and the WRC. Minimum wage €14.15 and My Future Fund in force since 1 January; the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 commenced 29 June; statutory sick pay unchanged at 5 days; no Pay Transparency Bill published.
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 commenced on 29 June 2026. An employee with a contractual retirement age below 66 can notify, three to twelve months ahead, an intention to work until 66; the employer can refuse only where objectively justified.
The 7 June 2026 transposition deadline for Directive (EU) 2023/970 passed without an Irish Act. The Department indicated a phased approach; no General Scheme was published.