Comparing job offers in Ireland
Net pay, real hours, and the costs nobody puts in the advert.
Job adverts quote gross pay because gross pay is the biggest number available. Very little of what decides whether an offer is good appears in it.
Start from net, not gross
Two euro an hour more is not two euro an hour more in your pocket. Above the standard rate band, roughly half of each additional euro goes in income tax, USC and PRSI. Compare what lands in your account.
Count the hours you are actually committing
Paid hours, plus unpaid breaks, plus commuting. A 39-hour job with a 55-minute commute each way and a half-hour unpaid lunch commits about 51 hours a week. The same pay across 51 hours is a very different rate than across 39.
Subtract the cost of going to work
Transport, parking, food you would not otherwise buy, clothing a role requires. These are real and recurring, and they scale with the distance and the sector rather than with the pay.
Then the things that are not cash
Employer pension contributions are deferred pay and belong in the total. Annual leave above the statutory minimum is time you would otherwise buy with your own money. Premiums for Sunday and unsocial hours can be a large share of hospitality and retail pay — and they depend on the roster you are actually given, not the one described at interview.
Put a price on your own time
This is uncomfortable but clarifying. If an hour of your own time is worth €15 to you, a commute of 90 minutes a day costs roughly €5,600 a year in time on top of the fare. Once that is on the page, a lot of "better paid" offers stop looking better.
And the things no calculator sees
Who you will report to, whether the hours are actually the hours, what the job leads to, and whether the place treats people well. A spreadsheet is a good way to eliminate an offer and a poor way to choose one.