Irish employment law has undergone more significant change in the last three years than in the previous decade combined. The pace of legislative change has been high, the coverage of new obligations has been broad, and the enforcement of existing obligations has tightened. For small and medium-sized employers in Dundalk and across County Louth, keeping up with what has changed — and what obligations now apply to them — is a genuine challenge.
This article — part of our payroll and employment guides for Irish employers — consolidates the most important employment law changes from 2023 through to 2026 into a single reference, explaining what each change requires and what the practical implications are for employers.
Statutory Sick Pay — Now Up to 7 Days Per Year
The Sick Leave Act 2022 introduced statutory sick pay for Irish employees for the first time. The entitlement has been phasing in since January 2023:
2023: 3 days per year. 2024: 5 days per year. 2025: 7 days per year.
The Act provides for eventual progression to 10 days — the timing of further increases beyond 7 days is subject to ministerial review.
Sick pay is paid at 70% of normal daily earnings, subject to a cap of €110 per day (check the current cap at gov.ie as it may be updated). Employees must have 13 weeks’ continuous service to qualify, and the absence must be certified by a GP.
For employers who already operated a generous company sick pay scheme, the statutory entitlement acts as a floor. For employers who had no sick pay scheme, the Act created a new payroll cost that must be budgeted for.
I covered this in more detail in my dedicated guide to small business sick pay obligations, but in the context of this consolidated guide, the key point is compliance: you must pay, you must keep records, and you cannot penalise employees for taking statutory sick leave.
Auto-Enrolment Pension — Live From September 2025
The Government Pensions Auto Enrolment Act 2024 came into force on 30 September 2025. Employees aged 23–60 earning more than €20,000 per year who are not already in a qualifying occupational pension scheme must be automatically enrolled.
Employer contribution rates in the initial phase: 1.5% of gross earnings (up to €80,000), rising to 6% by year ten. Employee contributions match at the same rates. The State adds a 1:3 top-up.
Opt-out is possible in months 7–8 of enrolment. Auto re-enrolment applies every two years for eligible employees who opt out.
This is a new and ongoing payroll cost. At initial rates, a €35,000 employee generates an additional employer cost of €525 per year; at the year-ten rate, that rises to €2,100. Full detail in my dedicated auto-enrolment article.
Minimum Wage Increases
The National Minimum Wage has increased significantly in recent years:
2024: €12.70 per hour. 2025: €13.50 per hour. 2026: Confirmed increase — check the current rate with Revenue or at gov.ie.
The Government’s stated ambition is to reach a Living Wage of 60% of median earnings, which will continue to push the minimum wage upward in coming years.
For small businesses employing staff at or near minimum wage — retail, hospitality, care, cleaning — these increases are a significant payroll cost pressure. They also have a ripple effect: employees earning marginally above minimum wage typically expect their wages to increase in line with the floor, otherwise the differential becomes compressed.
Failure to pay the minimum wage is an offence under the National Minimum Wage Acts. Revenue can investigate minimum wage compliance and issue compliance notices. The WRC can also investigate complaints from employees.
Right to Request Remote Working
The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023 introduced a statutory right for employees with at least six months’ service to request remote working arrangements. The employer must consider the request and respond within a defined period. They can refuse on specified grounds — the nature of the work, operational requirements, the impact on colleagues — but the refusal must be reasoned and documented.
This does not create a right to work remotely. It creates a right to request, and a corresponding obligation on the employer to consider the request properly and respond appropriately. An employer who refuses every remote working request without genuine consideration of each case is potentially exposed to a WRC complaint.
For the cross-border implications of granting remote working to employees who live in Northern Ireland, see my separate articles on remote working across the border.
Gender Pay Gap Reporting — Expanded to 50+ Employees
Since 2025, employers with 50 or more employees must publish a gender pay gap report annually, covering mean and median pay gaps, bonus gaps, and pay quartile distribution. I covered this in detail in my dedicated article on gender pay gap reporting in Ireland.
The key point for this summary: if your business employs 50 or more people and has not yet published a report, you are non-compliant. The Human Rights and Equality Commission enforces the obligation, and there are reputational as well as legal consequences for non-compliance.
The Right to Disconnect
The Code of Practice on the Right to Disconnect has been in place since 2021, but its practical implications continue to be misunderstood by many employers. The right to disconnect means employees are not obliged to routinely work outside their contractual hours, read or respond to out-of-hours communications, or be penalised for not doing so.
Employers are required to have a policy on the right to disconnect. In practice, for small businesses in County Louth where the working culture has always been somewhat informal, this means formalising what has been an informal understanding — making it clear that out-of-hours WhatsApp messages do not require immediate responses and that the working day has defined boundaries.
A WRC inspector who reviews an employer’s compliance will check for a right to disconnect policy. Not having one is a gap, even if there is no complaint from an employee.
The Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive
Ireland implemented the EU Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive through the European Union (Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions) Regulations 2022. The key practical requirements:
Employees must receive a written statement of their core terms of employment within 5 days of starting work (the core terms — name, place of work, rate of pay, hours, leave entitlements). The full written statement of all terms must be provided within 1 month of commencement.
This obligation is not new in concept — the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts have long required written statements — but the new regulations tightened the timeline, expanded the required content, and clarified that the obligation applies to all employees including very short-term workers.
If your employment contracts and offer letters have not been reviewed recently, it is worth having your HR advisor or solicitor check that they meet the current requirements.
Redundancy Changes
The standard statutory redundancy payment in Ireland is two weeks’ pay per year of service, plus a bonus week, subject to a cap of €600 per week on the reference pay. The cap has not kept pace with average earnings, meaning the statutory floor is relatively low for higher-paid employees.
Collective redundancy notification requirements under the Protection of Employment Acts have specific procedural requirements — notification to the Minister for Enterprise, consultation with employee representatives, specified notice periods — that apply when redundancies exceed defined thresholds. These requirements are frequently underestimated by employers who have not had to manage large-scale redundancies before.
Staying Current
Employment law changes faster than most business owners can track. The practical recommendation is to have an annual review of your employment contracts, policies, and procedures with an HR advisor or employment law specialist — and to ensure your payroll and accounting advisors are keeping you current on changes to pay-related obligations.
Many of the compliance failures I encounter in small businesses are not deliberate non-compliance — they are the result of obligations that changed after a contract was drafted, policies that were never updated, or requirements that were introduced but never communicated to the employer in plain language.
Paddy Malone FCA AITI
Paddy is the principal of Malone & Co. Chartered Accountants in Dundalk. A Fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and a Chartered Tax Consultant with the Irish Tax Institute, he has been advising businesses across County Louth and the North-East for over 35 years.