Ireland PRSI Guide 2025 — Classes & Social Welfare Links
What PRSI actually funds
PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance) is not a tax in the ordinary sense — it funds the Social Insurance Fund, which pays the State Pension (Contributory), Jobseeker's Benefit, Illness Benefit, Maternity and Paternity Benefit, and several other welfare payments. Which of those you can access later depends on which class of PRSI you paid, not just how much.
Class A — most employees
Class A covers most employees in industrial, commercial and service employment with reckonable weekly pay of €38 or more, and gives access to the full range of social insurance payments, subject to meeting each payment's own conditions.
For 2026, the rate steps up mid-year:
| Period | Employee | Employer, weekly pay ≤ €552 | Employer, above €552 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Jan – 30 Sep 2026 | 4.2% | 9.0% | 11.25% |
| From 1 Oct 2026 | 4.3% | 9.15% | 11.4% |
There is no employee PRSI at all on weekly earnings of €352 or less, and a tapered credit of up to €12 a week applies between €352.01 and €424, softening the jump into full liability. The lower employer threshold rose from €527 to €552 a week on 1 January 2026.
Class S — self-employed
Sole traders, partners, and proprietary directors owning more than 50% of a company pay Class S on all reckonable income once it exceeds €5,000 a year, with a minimum annual contribution of €650. The rate also steps up mid-year: 4.2% to 30 September 2026, 4.35% from 1 October. Because most self-employed people pay PRSI through a single annual Form 11 return rather than week-by-week, Revenue applies a blended rate for the whole 2026 tax year — 4.2375% — to reflect the in-year change, rather than asking self-assessed filers to split their income by period.
Class S gives access to the State Pension (Contributory), Maternity, Paternity, Parent's and Adoptive Benefit, Invalidity Pension, Treatment Benefit, Jobseeker's Benefit for the Self-Employed, and the Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds — but not the ordinary Jobseeker's Benefit that a Class A employee can claim, since that particular payment is not among Class S's covered benefits.
Class M — nil liability
Class M covers people with no PRSI liability at all — most commonly employees under age 16, people over State Pension age, people receiving only an occupational pension, and office holders earning €100 a week or less. A Class M record carries no benefit entitlement, since no contribution is being made. There is nothing to do here beyond understanding why a payslip shows "M" rather than a rate.
Other classes exist for specific groups
Class J applies mainly to employees earning under €38 a week and to certain categories regardless of pay, such as people working past 66 or in subsidiary employment. Class B is a modified, lower-cost class for permanent and pensionable civil servants, Gardaí, and certain health-sector staff recruited before 6 April 1995, reflecting their access to an integrated occupational pension rather than a full welfare entitlement. Most employees and self-employed people will only ever see A or S on a payslip or self-assessment, but a payslip showing something else is not necessarily an error.
How your record becomes a pension
The State Pension (Contributory) uses the Total Contributions Approach: your paid contributions, plus credited contributions and HomeCaring Periods (for time spent caring for children or others), are added up over your working life to age 66. 2,080 contributions (broadly, 40 years) gives the maximum rate; 1,040 gives roughly half; the rate scales between these reference points. Gaps in your record — time abroad, time out of the workforce without credited contributions — reduce the eventual rate unless covered by HomeCaring Periods or credits, which is why an early career gap can still matter decades later even if it feels irrelevant at the time.
FAQ
Q: I'm a proprietary director owning 60% of my own company. Am I Class A or Class S? A: Class S. Owning more than 50% of the company's shares puts a director's own remuneration into Class S rather than Class A, even though they may also be an employee of the company in every other respect.
Q: Does Class S give me access to ordinary Jobseeker's Benefit if my business fails? A: Not the ordinary version — self-employed people instead have a dedicated Jobseeker's Benefit for the Self-Employed, with its own conditions, rather than the standard Class A payment.
Q: I earn €300 a week from one job. Do I pay any PRSI? A: No employee PRSI is due at all — €352 a week is the threshold below which Class A employees pay nothing.
Sources
Figures verified against the Department of Social Protection's official SW14 guide as of 30 July 2026:
- Department of Social Protection — "PRSI — Pay Related Social Insurance" and "PRSI Contribution Rates and User Guide" (SW14), January 2026 edition (Class A rates and thresholds including the 1 October 2026 step-up, Class S rate/minimum/blended annual rate, Class J/M/B descriptions)
- Department of Social Protection — "The different classes of Pay-Related Social Insurance (PRSI)" (which benefits each class does and does not cover)
- Citizens Information / gov.ie — "State Pension (Contributory)" (Total Contributions Approach, 2,080-contribution maximum, HomeCaring Periods)