Caring & leisure services vs Sales & customer service Salary Comparison

Students, career changers, and hiring managers often ask whether Caring, leisure and other service occupations or Sales and customer service occupations pays more on a nationally representative benchmark. This page anchors that question to CSO SES 2022 major-group medians for full-time employees — half earn more, half earn less — then layers 2026 paycheck math so you see take-home, not just gross.

Caring, leisure and other service occupations leads on gross median by €4,710 per year. That is roughly €2.84 per hour — before you factor training time, licensing, or non-wage benefits.

Use the scoreboard for medians and ranks, the scenario ladder for single vs married one income take-home, then open each profile for CSO source links and calculator deep links.

CSO SES medians are full-time employee earnings by occupation group (hourly × paid weekly hours × 52). Self-employment income sits outside this table. Employer pension contributions are not subtracted from employee take-home in our columns.

Caring & leisure services (caring) and Sales & customer service (sales) can look closer or farther apart in a specific city than on this national line — especially Dublin and Cork weighting or penalty rates.

When an offer exceeds the median, model it in the Ireland paycheck calculator. When you need city context, pair this page with metro paycheck examples Ireland.

At Caring & leisure services's median (€32,091), modeled effective employee deduction rates run 13.3% single and 13.3% married one income. At Sales & customer service's median (€27,381): 10.9% (single) and 10.9% (married).

Ireland PAYE is nationwide — counties do not levy a separate wage income tax. Both vignettes include USC and PRSI with full personal and employee credits.

These are standardized Ireland vignettes — not a forecast of your PAYE withholding or year-end reconciliation.

Education debt, licensing exams, night shifts, and pension packaging can invert a simple median ranking over a full career.

Professionals vs managers & directors is the top of the table; elementary vs sales & customer service shows how weekly hours can flip hourly vs annual rankings.

Remember SES figures are full-time employee cash medians — sole traders and contractors can differ substantially.

Caring & leisure services ranks #7 of 9 tracked major groups; Sales & customer service ranks #9.

The €4,710 gap is 17% relative to Sales & customer service's median — use hourly figures when comparing to part-time or contract offers.

Featured corridors on the hub (professionals vs managers & directors, elementary vs sales & customer service) exist because search volume clusters there — your pair may still be valid even when ranks are far apart.

Open the Caring & leisure services and Sales & customer service profiles for CSO source links and calculator deep links prefilled at each median.

If relocation is involved, stack metro paycheck examples Ireland on top of this occupation comparison — gross median alone does not price rent or commute.

When an offer exceeds either median, model it in the Ireland paycheck calculator with your marital status and credit settings.