Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), the largest representative body for the retail industry in Ireland, has called on the Government to cut employers’ PRSI in Budget 2027 in order to save retail jobs.
This week, REI members and retail staff gathered across the country to launch the ‘Cut PRSI, Keep Jobs’ campaign.
The campaign has three demands for Budget 2027:
- Introduce an employer PRSI band of 8% on the first €36,000 of every wage, reducing to 5% by 2029, worth an estimated €1,000 per full-time employee next year, rising to roughly €2,000 by 2029.
- Introduce zero employer PRSI for workers under 25, similar to the approach the UK has taken, which has run a zero-rate employer National Insurance scheme for under-21s since 2015, extended to apprentices under 25 in 2016.
- Review the methodology for the calculation of the living wage to reflect the disproportionate influence that the multinational and financial services sectors have on the media wage in Ireland.
Retail employs an estimated 81,000 workers under 25 in Ireland, which equates to four in ten of all young workers nationally. This measure would make each young employee's job an estimated €1,270 a year cheaper to sustain, at an estimated cost to the State of €105 million for the retail sector alone – without changing the young person's own pay, PRSI record, or benefit entitlements.
From October 1st, employers’ PRSI rates are set to rise to 9.15% up to the weekly earnings threshold of €552 per week, rising to 11.4% for earnings above the threshold.
According to a recent survey conducted among REI members, 91% have reported reduced profitability and 59% have already cut jobs or hours in the last year because of sustained cost pressures. The trade body estimates that some 400,000 retail hours per week have been cut in the past year, equating to 10,800 fewer jobs in the sector compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, retail insolvencies are up 35% in the first half of 2026 alone, now accounting for one in four of all Irish business failures, according to PwC.
Speaking today, Jean McCabe, CEO of REI, said: “The retail industry has been under the most intense pressure from a range of cost pressures in recent times – and wage costs are the primary issue. The industry is now seeing a rapid increase in insolvencies because of these pressures, so Government must now act unless it wants to see more businesses fail.”
She said that the Government collected an estimated extra €350 million in PRSI last year from minimum wage increases alone. “We are due to see an increase in employers’ PRSI at the start of October, which will be another blow to SMEs. This cannot happen and, moreover, the rates need to be brought down. This would cost €220 million in year one, rising to €450 million by 2029.”
Ms McCabe noted that the Government has twice already accepted the underlying logic of this demand: by pausing the expansion of statutory sick pay and delaying the move to the Living Wage to 2029, both citing pressure on retail margins. Today’s ask goes a step further: not just pausing future increases but offsetting the cost of the increases already in place.
The campaign has been driven by SME retailers who stood together with their own staff as a single visual line at each location this morning.
“We’re asking every TD, in every constituency, to back this ask,” said Ms McCabe. “And we’re asking Tánaiste Simon Harris, as Minister for Finance, to introduce it directly in Budget 2027. It’s costed, it’s modest, and it keeps jobs in local communities.”
#CutPRSIKeepJobs
