The median gross hourly wage rate for agricultural machinery operators working in agricultural contractor fleets in Ireland in 2025, is between €15-20/hour, according to a recent nationwide contractor wage survey carried out by the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI).
All of the respondents to the recent FCI member survey, reported paying their operators gross rates of between €15–€25/hour.
Notably, zero respondents reported paying their operators above €25 per hour and only 19 percent reported paying gross wage rates of between €21 and €25 per hour. These figures show that the most experienced operators working in agricultural contractor teams are commanding gross wage rates of between €21 and €25 an hour while the majority of operators are receiving a more realistic gross wage of between €15 and €20 per hour.
For most agricultural contractor businesses, the Association believes that gross hourly wage rates above these levels are unsustainable in the current economic environment. Irish agricultural contractors are also constrained in terms of gross hourly wage rates by level of costs, as contractor charges, that can be viably passed on to their farming clients. This is reflected in an analysis of the Teagasc National Farm Survey, over a period of ten years, which has shown that the cost of contracting services to Irish farms remains at a very competitive 14% of total direct costs.
When paying wages, Irish agricultural contractor business owners have to also providing funding for employers PRSI, insurance and take account downtime pay due to weather impacts along with other miscellaneous costs, meaning that the actual cost of labour is already significantly higher than the actual gross wage rate received by the operator on an hourly basis.
These findings are in line with FCI’s Contractor Charges Guide for 2025 which FCI produces every year from consultation with agricultural contractor members and sector colleagues. FCI continues to work with members and industry colleagues to promote fair employment and safe practices as well as provide skilled career opportunities for machine operators within the industry, which now has an annual gross turnover in excess of €950 million.
For any information on the working conditions of Irish contractors, FCI should be the first point of contact, with nearly 400 contractor members based around the country operating in a variety of locations, providing a range of services at different levels of enterprise scale.
