IRISH bank officials are the second-worst paid in western Europe even though they can receive up to £28,000 a year between basic salary and fringe benefits. The worst-paid are British bank officials who receive around £23,000 at the top of the scale.
However, Irish officials could quickly move to the bottom of the league because most young recruits are on the new junior bank official grade. The starting salary is only £9,600 a year and rises to a maximum of £15,500 to £17,000, depending on the bank. Even staff on the old salary structures have to wait between 18 and 21 years to reach a salary of £25,000.
The Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) is now having to tend off attempts by Irish banks to bring the top salaries here in line with those paid in Britain and Northern Ireland. The Ulster Bank has written to staff in the Republic telling them what they would earn under a new pay-scale it wants to introduce. In many cases the difference is around £6,000 a year.
This is a "notional" pay cut at present as the bank is in negotiation with the IBOA about proposed salary changes. Under the terms of a plan to discuss pay restructuring, the management and union have agreed that for now no employee's salary will be cut or frozen.
Irish bank officials can cast an envious eye at their colleagues in France, Belgium, Austria, Italy and Germany, where they can receive up to £40,000 a year, or Switzerland, the bankers' paradise, where pay rises to £70,000.