What employment law changes to expect in 2026
HR Dept
We are right in the middle of the festive period. Christmas is completed and we’re getting ready to celebrate the New Year. In these (often) slower days, you may choose to take a look at what’s coming up in 2026.
Forewarned is forearmed! And we are here to help with the HR side of things.
Like 2025, 2026 is set to be a busy year. It is likely to be a year of implementation rather than brand-new legislation.
Let’s start with national minimum wage rises that will come into effect in 2026.
National minimum wage rises
From 1st January, the national minimum wage will rise by €0.65 to €14.15 per hour
Statutory sick pay remains the same
It was originally intended that statutory sick pay entitlement would gradually get more generous following its introduction. The trajectory was for it to have risen from five to seven days per year in 2025, and then up to ten days in 2026. However, following pressure from employers, it has been frozen at five days for now. Statutory sick pay is paid at 70% of wages capped at €110 per day.
Auto-enrolment pensions
Hopefully you are ready for this as it is a major change taking effect from 1st January (having already been delayed from a 2025 start).
Employees earning over €20,000 and aged between 23 and 60 must be automatically enrolled into the My Future Fund pension (unless they are already in a qualifying pension scheme). You and they must each contribute 1.5% of their salary, a rate that will increase over the years until it reaches 6% ten years from now.
If you still need to action this, act urgently. We can help.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive
You have until 7th June to implement this. It is designed to put much more pressure on achieving gender pay parity. Obligations include putting mandatory salary ranges in job ads, prohibiting pay secrecy clauses and enhanced rights to request pay information.
AI rules delayed
The EU AI Act has been introduced, but some of its key provisions are likely to be deferred from 2026 to as far back as December 2027. In particular, the more burdensome requirements for what are judged high risk activities. These include recruitment, employee monitoring and performance management. This is to ensure that technical guidelines and standards are fully developed prior to implementation.
Other things to keep an eye on
Ireland’s Action Plan to Promote Collective Bargaining 2026-2030 was published in November. This is part of our compliance with the EU Adequate Minimum Wages Directive. This plan will bring in a new code of practice, public awareness campaigns, studying ideas for tax incentives for union membership and targeted research on the benefits of collective bargaining.
There’s a disclosure opportunity until 26 January for if you have made a genuine mistake treating employees as contractors in 2024 and 2025. You can notify the Revenue Commission and not suffer interest or penalty payments.
Addressing the classification of employment status, Ireland must incorporate the EU Platform Workers Directive into law by 2nd December 2026. Where workers operate through a digital platform and there is direction and control over their activities, they must be presumed to be employed.
Your action plan
That is a lot to take in. We are here to help you review what you need to change and help you do it. Particular areas of attention include company policy updates, staff training and robust recruitment processes. Get in touch with us to get 2026 off to a flying start.
