PRSI Rises Today: What the 1 October 2026 Increase Costs You

News analysis · 1 October 2026. This article focuses on the standard Class A employee rates. PRSI depends on contribution class, weekly earnings and payroll circumstances.

A change on Irish payslips takes effect today, 1 October 2026.

For most Class A employees who pay PRSI, the employee contribution rate has increased from 4.20% to 4.35%.

That is a rise of 0.15 percentage points.

It is not a 0.15% increase in the amount of PRSI you already paid. It means an additional 0.15% of reckonable earnings is charged under the main rate.

For someone earning €50,000 a year on an even weekly basis, that works out at roughly €1.44 extra PRSI per week.

Because the higher rate only applies from 1 October, the extra cost during the final 13 weeks of 2026 is much smaller than the full-year figure.

How much extra PRSI will you pay?

For employees comfortably above the weekly thresholds, the arithmetic is straightforward:

extra weekly PRSI = weekly reckonable earnings × 0.15%

Here are some examples.

Gross annual salary	Approx. extra per week	Approx. extra from Oct-Dec 2026*	Full-year equivalent at the higher rate
€30,000	€0.87	€11.25	€45.00
€40,000	€1.15	€15.00	€60.00
€50,000	€1.44	€18.75	€75.00
€60,000	€1.73	€22.50	€90.00
€75,000	€2.16	€28.13	€112.50
€80,000	€2.31	€30.00	€120.00
€100,000	€2.88	€37.50	€150.00

*Illustration assumes an even weekly salary and 13 weeks at the new rate. Actual payroll can differ where pay varies by pay period, and lower weekly earnings can interact with PRSI thresholds and the tapered credit.

The easiest way to check your own figure is Compound’s PRSI Calculator, which models the 2026 rate change and the relevant weekly-income rules.

What changed today?

The Department of Social Protection’s Class A table shows the following standard employee and employer rates.

Weekly income	Employee PRSI to 30 Sep	Employee PRSI from 1 Oct	Employer PRSI to 30 Sep	Employer PRSI from 1 Oct
€38-€352	Nil	Nil	9.00%	9.00%
€352.01-€424	4.20%*	4.35%*	9.00%	9.15%
€424.01-€552	4.20%	4.35%	9.00%	9.15%
More than €552	4.20%	4.35%	11.25%	11.40%

*A tapered employee PRSI credit applies for weekly earnings between €352.01 and €424.

So the change is not identical for every worker.

An employee earning €352 or less in a week continues to have no employee Class A PRSI deduction for that week.

Employees between €352.01 and €424 are in the tapered-credit range, so a simple annual-salary-times-4.35% calculation can be misleading.

What happens to a €50,000 salary?

A €50,000 annual salary is about €961.54 a week if spread evenly across 52 weeks.

Before today:

• employee PRSI at 4.20% was about €40.38 a week.

From today:

• employee PRSI at 4.35% is about €41.83 a week.

Difference:

• about €1.44 a week;
• about €6.25 a month on a simple annualised budgeting basis;
• about €18.75 extra over the final 13 weeks of 2026;
• or €75 over a full 52-week year if the 0.15-point difference applied throughout.

The actual change in net pay can be checked with Compound’s Take-Home Pay Calculator.

Why is PRSI increasing?

This is not a surprise Budget-day measure.

The increase forms part of a multi-year PRSI roadmap agreed by Government.

The Department of Social Protection set out staged increases across PRSI classes:

Effective from 1 October	Increase
2024	0.10 percentage points
2025	0.10 percentage points
2026	0.15 percentage points
2027	0.15 percentage points
2028	0.20 percentage points

The Department has said the increases are intended to support the long-term finances of the Social Insurance Fund, help retain the State Pension age at 66, and support pay-related jobseeker benefits.

So today’s increase is one step in a sequence rather than a one-off change.

Another PRSI increase is already scheduled

The roadmap means today’s rise is not the final one.

A further 0.15 percentage-point increase is scheduled for 1 October 2027, followed by a 0.20 percentage-point increase from 1 October 2028.

If the roadmap proceeds as scheduled, PRSI therefore remains an important part of future take-home-pay calculations even if Income Tax and USC rates do not change.

That is particularly relevant when comparing a salary increase across several years.

Employers are paying more too

For employees earning more than €552 a week, the main employer Class A rate rises today from 11.25% to 11.40%.

For the middle Class A bands between €352.01 and €552 a week, the employer rate rises from 9.00% to 9.15%.

That employer contribution is separate from the amount deducted from an employee’s payslip.

For example, on a €50,000 salary, a 0.15 percentage-point rise in employer PRSI is also equivalent to about €75 a year on a full-year basis.

That matters for the overall cost of employing someone, even though it does not appear as an additional deduction from the worker’s gross salary.

It is also one reason gross salary alone does not capture the full difference between employment and contracting.

Does the increase affect Income Tax or USC?

No.

The PRSI rate change does not by itself change your Income Tax band, tax credits or USC rates.

They are separate parts of the payroll system.

For a worker already in the 40% Income Tax band and the 3% USC band, today’s PRSI change moves the combined marginal deduction on an additional euro from roughly:

40% Income Tax + 3% USC + 4.20% PRSI = 47.20%

to:

40% + 3% + 4.35% = 47.35%

At higher incomes where the 8% USC rate applies, the combined headline marginal deduction can reach 52.35% before considering pension relief or other circumstances.

That is a marginal rate on additional earnings, not the percentage taken from the person’s entire salary.

Use the Income Tax Calculator and USC Calculator if you want to separate those deductions.

What about self-employed workers?

The October increase is not limited to standard employees.

The Government’s PRSI roadmap applies across contribution classes, and the Department’s operational guidance states that the main Class S self-employed rate rises from 4.20% to 4.35% from 1 October 2026.

Because self-employed PRSI is generally dealt with on an annual basis through self-assessment, the Department describes a blended 2026 rate of 4.2375% for relevant Class S income, subject to the applicable rules and minimum contribution.

The calculation is therefore different from simply treating the entire 2026 income as if 4.35% applied for all 12 months.

Will everyone notice the change immediately?

Not necessarily on 1 October itself.

PRSI is operated through payroll periods, so the higher rate will show when a pay period falls under the new rate.

A weekly-paid employee may see the change quickly.

A monthly-paid employee will see it reflected through the relevant October payroll treatment.

The cash difference is modest for most individual workers, but because PRSI applies across a very large workforce, small percentage-point changes raise substantial sums at national level.

The bottom line

From 1 October 2026, the main Class A employee PRSI rate has risen from 4.20% to 4.35%.

For employees above the relevant thresholds:

• €30,000 salary: about 87 cent extra a week;
• €50,000 salary: about €1.44 extra a week;
• €75,000 salary: about €2.16 extra a week;
• €100,000 salary: about €2.88 extra a week.

The key distinction is between the full-year equivalent and the actual 2026 cost.

A €50,000 worker would pay about €75 extra over a full year at the higher rate, but only about €18.75 extra across the final 13 weeks of 2026 under the simple even-pay assumption.

You can enter your own salary in Compound’s PRSI Calculator to see the change, then use the Take-Home Pay Calculator to put PRSI alongside Income Tax and USC.