How to work: Contractors earn one and a half times more than employees

A survey by Trinity Business School seeks to shed light on the professional contracting sector and finds six-figure annual income is the norm

Jimmy Sheehan, managing director, Contracting Plus, and Andrew Burke, dean of Trinity Business School, who worked together on the Ireland’s Project Economy report

Professional contractors in Ireland earned an average income of €109,066 last year, new research has found.

The survey by Trinity Business School showed that contractors earned over one-and-a-half times more than their counterparts in full-time employment last year, charging an average daily rate of more than €500.

The report, Ireland’s Project Economy, was the first to focus solely on high-skilled independent professional contractors, according to Andrew Burke, the chair of business studies at Trinity Business ...