Galway: household charge non-payment lead to reduction in services

The Corinthian

Sleepy wrote: »

Because morons in this country voted FF into government for decades whilst they destroyed the tax-base, cheered on a property bubble and generally acted like prohibition-era gangsters.

I love how no one admits to being one of those morons any more. It's like all those people who were shocked to discover how priests were abusing kids for decades, even though in most cases there were local rumours and even jokes circulating.

Sleepy

I know a fair few that still admit voting for them.

The Corinthian

Sleepy wrote: »

I know a fair few that still admit voting for them.

I stand corrected.

Geuze

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

You can take it from me that the average industrial wage is way below 35,000

Average earnings in Ireland are 688 pw.

That's 35,776 pa.

See here:

http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

Sleepy

The Corinthian wrote: »

I stand corrected.

To be fair, they admit it more to wind me up because I gave them all such an ear-bashing for doing it at the time...

creedp

avalon68 wrote: »

Well the statistics say otherwise - http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/average-industrial-wage-in-ireland-576846-Aug2012/

First article that came up when I googled was that one

Interesting, the av ind wage is actually €803.98 pw - slightly higher than the €611.66 average private sector wage. It looks like only for the pay in the accommodation and food sector, the 40% gap argument would lose a lot of its wind!

Galwayguy35

Geuze wrote: »

Average earnings in Ireland are 688 pw.

That's 35,776 pa.

See here:

http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

I must be low paid so.

I only make half that in a week.

Godge

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I must be low paid so.

I only make half that in a week.

That would mean you earn €344 in a week. Assuming you work 40 hours, that gives an hourly rate of €8.60. That hourly rate is below the minimum wage.

You may fall into one of these categories:

(1) under-18 therefore only entitled to a lower minimum wage
(2) over-18 but less than two years experience therefore only entitled to a lower minimum wage
(3) are working less than 40 hours, therefore pushing up the average hourly rate towards the norms e.g. if you are only working 20 hours, the fact you earn half of 688 is nothing to do with your rate of pay, it is because you only work half the time
(4) have confused gross and net wages, the figure referred would be before tax, if your figure is after tax, it is not a like-for-like comparison
(5) you are being exploited by your employer
(6) you made the figure up

Galwayguy35

Godge wrote: »

That would mean you earn €344 in a week. Assuming you work 40 hours, that gives an hourly rate of €8.60. That hourly rate is below the minimum wage.

You may fall into one of these categories:

(1) under-18 therefore only entitled to a lower minimum wage
(2) over-18 but less than two years experience therefore only entitled to a lower minimum wage
(3) are working less than 40 hours, therefore pushing up the average hourly rate towards the norms e.g. if you are only working 20 hours, the fact you earn half of 688 is nothing to do with your rate of pay, it is because you only work half the time
(4) have confused gross and net wages, the figure referred would be before tax, if your figure is after tax, it is not a like-for-like comparison
(5) you are being exploited by your employer
(6) you made the figure up

Yeah it's €350 after tax because our company is going bad and we had to take a pay cut but you didn't think of that in your little analysis of my situation.

I also resent you suggesting I'm a liar by what you put down for point 6

Godge

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Yeah it's €350 after tax because our company is going bad and we had to take a pay cut but you didn't think of that in your little analysis of my situation.

I also resent you suggesting I'm a liar by what you put down for point 6

No, I didn't suggest you are a liar. I put six options down, you have confirmed point 4 applies, I am happy to accept that.

AlekSmart

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Yeah it's €350 after tax because our company is going bad and we had to take a pay cut but you didn't think of that in your little analysis of my situation.

I also resent you suggesting I'm a liar by what you put down for point 6

But the "after-tax" element confuses things a bit,does it not ?

avalon68

AlekSmart wrote: »

But the "after-tax" element confuses things a bit,does it not ?

Indeed, if you want to compare like with like, then, plugging in the 132000 salary into a tax calculator indicates that this city manager dude actually gets About 75000 net.....still good money, but it's not exactly outrageous. I really don't understand why people quote net salaries.....I've even known people who quote net after mortgage deductions!

Geuze

Wages are always quoted gross.

Geuze

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Geuze wrote: »

Average earnings in Ireland are 688 pw.

That's 35,776 pa.

See here:

http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/earnings/

I must be low paid so.

I only make half that in a week.

You should always quote the gross wage.

All of us have different tax credits, so net wages can't be compared

crusher000

Geuze wrote: »

You should always quote the gross wage.

All of us have different tax credits, so net wages can't be compared

I work in the private sector and this week I did 3.8 hours over time at time and a half, I did 6 hours over time at double time , my gross was 723.25 and took home 540. I did all this over time and still can't make the so called av. industrial wage. If the government are making assumptions on the figure yuo origianally quoted them I'm screwed and now onder I'am struggling week to week to keep bills paid. Reality versus statistics is a big gap. Croke Park my arse.

Geuze

Average earnings are 688 pa, or 22 per hour, when using average hours worked.

So with the overtime, you exceeded the national average gross weekly earnings, in that week.

crusher000

Interesting, the av ind wage is actually €803.98 pw - slightly higher than the €611.66 average private sector wage. It looks like only for the pay in the accommodation and food sector, the 40% gap argument would lose a lot of its wind!

OK my mistake I was going on the av Ind wage and not the av. private sector wage .

HellFireClub

crusher000 wrote: »

Interesting, the av ind wage is actually €803.98 pw - slightly higher than the €611.66 average private sector wage. It looks like only for the pay in the accommodation and food sector, the 40% gap argument would lose a lot of its wind!

OK my mistake I was going on the av Ind wage and not the av. private sector wage .

I don't know about you, but in my opinion there is a large difference between earning 803 Euro a week and 611 Euro a week.

beeno67

HellFireClub wrote: »

I don't know about you, but in my opinion there is a large difference between earning 803 Euro a week and 611 Euro a week.

Well it's the difference between a part time job €611 and a full time job €803

The Corinthian

beeno67 wrote: »

Well it's the difference between a part time job €611 and a full time job €803

€192?

beeno67

The Corinthian wrote: »

€192?

What's your point?

The Corinthian

beeno67 wrote: »

What's your point?

My apologies, I had thought that it had become acceptable to drag the discussion wildly off topic. My mistake - carry on.

crusher000

I'll go back to the point again that Government aren't seriously looking at the level of spending compared to it's in take of money. If they keep raising taxes to fund in effeciencies well this is just lazy politics. Front line services in all departments seem to be hit their fair share but higher up the ladder the big money earners even if they do take a decrease are still there. Out with them altogether and none of this softly softly approach .

avalon68

crusher000 wrote: »

I'll go back to the point again that Government aren't seriously looking at the level of spending compared to it's in take of money. If they keep raising taxes to fund in effeciencies well this is just lazy politics. Front line services in all departments seem to be hit their fair share but higher up the ladder the big money earners even if they do take a decrease are still there. Out with them altogether and none of this softly softly approach .

Which frontline workers have been hit though? Hitting new entrants during a recruitment embargo doesn't really save money right now. We still hear about these silly allowances being part of core pay.....if I turned up to work today and demanded more money because I have a degree, and refused to answer the phone without extra pay, I'd be leaving with my stuff in a box within hours! That said, I still think we need a sustainable tax such as a property tax. But we also need to clear out the dead wood. Over in the postgrad forum there is a thread about someone quitting a phd that outlines the personal abuse a student has suffer at the hands of his/ her supervisor, the fact that the student already spoke with the department head and NOTHING happened. This person should not be employed in our universities, and I know for certain there are many more like her from personal experience. I'm sure that is the case for many professions. These people need to be removed from the system. They cost us money to pay them, money for their pensions, grant money for research ...... But of course nothing ever happens to fix the problem. So yes, taxes need to increase, but, unions also need tackling if the country is ever to move forward. If there was an all out strike, would it really be that bad? Aren't there enough unemployed teachers/ nurses around that everything wouldn't come to a complete standstill?