Strategy aligned
Tie compensation to your business strategy and culture.
Your strongest pull for talent
Pay & reward built to win and keep people
Your compensation strategy is your strongest lever for winning and keeping the right people. PurpleTree helps Irish SMEs design pay and reward packages that are fair, competitive, legally sound, and tied to business performance.
Make your largest outlay work harder for you.
Strategic Reward That Goes Beyond Compliance
Pay is the single largest cost in most Irish businesses and the strongest signal you send about how you value your people. Getting it right means going well beyond minimum wage and your PAYE, PRSI and USC obligations. We work with your leadership team to build pay structures that are fair internally, competitive in your sector, legally defensible, and affordable, so reward becomes a tool for growth rather than a recurring source of disputes.
Stronger brand
Sharpen your employer brand in a competitive market.
Drive performance
Lift performance and engagement with targeted incentives.
Compliant reward
Meet equal pay and Revenue requirements across PAYE, PRSI and USC.
A deliberate approach, not decisions on the fly.
Our Pay & Reward Services
PurpleTree offers specialist pay and reward services built for Irish SMEs that have outgrown ad hoc salary decisions but cannot justify a full reward function in house. We bring structure to how roles are valued, how pay is set, and how the total package is communicated, and we ground every recommendation in current Irish market data drawn from our salary benchmarking and market rate report services.
- Compensation Structure DesignClear pay frameworks with defined salary bands and job grades.
- Salary BenchmarkingCurrent Irish market data so your offers and pay reviews stay competitive.
- Pay Equity & Gender Pay Gap AnalysisIdentifying unexplained gaps and supporting your reporting obligations.
- Total Rewards StrategyHolistic packages spanning base pay, benefits, bonuses and non-financial reward.
Fair on the inside, strong on the outside.
Internal Equity and External Competitiveness
Strong pay structures balance internal fairness with external competitiveness. If two people doing work of equal value are paid very differently without a clear, documented reason, you carry equal pay risk under the Employment Equality Acts, as a recent WRC equal pay award shows. PurpleTree analyses both dimensions, identifies where roles sit out of line, and builds a framework that is fair to your team and attractive to candidates. Our job evaluation and grading work underpins the internal side, while salary benchmarking keeps you aligned to the market.
- Job evaluation for fair, consistent internal pay grading
- Salary benchmarking against current Irish market rates
- Pay equity audits that stand up to scrutiny
Pay that pulls in the right direction.
Bonus and Incentive Schemes That Drive Results
A well-designed incentive plan motivates your people and aligns their effort with your business objectives. A poorly designed one rewards the wrong behaviour, creates resentment, or quietly becomes a contractual entitlement you cannot easily change. PurpleTree helps you build bonus, commission and recognition schemes that are clear, measurable, fair and affordable, with the rules written down so both sides know exactly how they work. We also make sure the scheme does not create unintended exposure under the Payment of Wages Act.
- Align incentives with the objectives that actually matter
- Set SMART targets employees can understand and act on
- Document transparent rules that build trust and limit disputes
The full package that keeps people staying.
Reward Strategy and Employee Retention
Retention starts with how people feel about their total reward, and base salary is only part of that. PurpleTree looks at the whole package, from employee benefits and pension provision to flexible working, career progression and recognition, and helps you invest where it changes a decision to stay. With the average salary in Ireland rising, a clear, well-communicated total reward offer is often what keeps your best people from testing the market. The employee experience sits alongside pay in that decision.
- Competitive base pay aligned to current market data
- Benefits and pension provision matched to your workforce
- Clear career and salary progression pathways
Be ready when the proof falls on you.
Pay Transparency, Equal Pay and the Law
Fair pay is increasingly a legal requirement, not just good practice. Every reward decision must comply with the National Minimum Wage Act, the Payment of Wages Act and the Employment Equality Acts.
On top of that, the EU Pay Transparency Directive, due to be transposed into Irish law by June 2026, will require employers to share pay ranges with candidates, let employees request average pay data by gender for equal work, and carry out a joint pay assessment where an unexplained gap above 5 percent appears in any category.
Critically, where you have not met your transparency obligations, the burden of proof in a pay discrimination claim shifts to you. We help you prepare now through job evaluation and pay transparency work and gender pay gap reporting, and our guide to pay transparency mistakes sets out where employers are already falling behind.
- National Minimum Wage and Payment of Wages Act compliance
- Equal pay and equality assurance across the nine protected grounds
- Readiness for the EU Pay Transparency Directive
- Personalised Total Reward Statements that explain the full package
Big-company thinking at a small-company price.
Why Choose PurpleTree for Pay & Reward
Our consultants combine decades of hands-on Irish HR experience with current market data, so the advice you get is practical, grounded in Irish law, and built for an SME budget rather than borrowed from a UK playbook.
We scope each piece of pay and reward work to your business and agree it in writing before we start, whether it runs as a one-off project or sits within an outsourced HR retainer.
Where you want the package delivered and tracked digitally, our HR software service handles records, benefits and Total Reward Statements through HR:Duo. See how we price HR support before you commit.
- Senior reward specialists with deep knowledge of Irish sectors
- Practical, SME-focused solutions grounded in current employment law
- Work scoped and agreed in writing before it begins
Get in Touch
Tell us your headcount, sector and what your pay and reward setup looks like today. We will scope the right piece of work, whether it is a one-off project or part of an ongoing retainer, and design a package that motivates your team, fits your budget and gives you a competitive edge. See how we price HR support, then talk to us about your business.
Free 5-minute HR Health Check
See where your business stands before the WRC does
Answer 40 straightforward questions on contracts, working time, pay, leave and policies, and get a clear read on where your compliance gaps sit and what to fix first.
Common questions from employers
A total reward strategy is the full picture of what an employee receives in exchange for their work: base salary, any bonus or commission, pension and benefits, and the non-financial elements such as flexibility, development and recognition. For an SME it matters because you rarely win on base salary alone against larger employers, so the way you combine and communicate the whole package is often what attracts and keeps the right people. We help you design that package so it is fair, affordable and aligned to how your business actually makes money.
The only reliable answer comes from current market data for your roles, sector and region, not from what you paid last year or what a competitor mentioned in passing. We benchmark your roles against up-to-date Irish pay data so you can see exactly where you sit, through our salary benchmarking and market rate report services. That tells you where you are at risk of losing people and where you may be paying over the odds.
The Directive, due to be transposed into Irish law by June 2026, will require employers to share pay ranges with candidates before or during recruitment, give employees the right to request average pay information broken down by gender for the same or equal work, and carry out a joint pay assessment where an unexplained gap above 5 percent appears in any category of workers. Where you have not met your transparency obligations, the burden of proof in a pay discrimination claim shifts to you. Building defensible pay structures takes months, so the work is best started well before the deadline.
The reporting threshold under the Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 has fallen to employers with 50 or more employees, so many businesses that were previously exempt are now in scope. You choose a snapshot date in June, calculate the required figures, and publish your report with a supporting narrative and action plan within six months. We manage the process end to end through our gender pay gap reporting service.
Start with the business outcomes you actually want to drive, set targets that are specific and measurable, and write the rules down clearly so everyone understands how the scheme pays out and when. A scheme that is vague or applied inconsistently can create resentment, encourage the wrong behaviour, or harden into a contractual entitlement you cannot easily withdraw. We design schemes that are transparent, affordable and aligned to your objectives, and we check they do not create exposure under equality or wages legislation.
It depends on whether the benefit is a contractual entitlement or a genuinely discretionary one. If a bonus or benefit forms part of the contract, or has been paid so consistently that it has become an implied term, removing it unilaterally can breach the contract and the Payment of Wages Act 1991. Discretionary schemes give you more room, but only if the discretion is clearly documented and exercised reasonably. We review how your schemes are framed before any change so you do not walk into a claim.
A Total Reward Statement is a personalised summary that shows an employee the full value of their package, including base pay, employer pension contributions, benefits and any bonus, in one place. It is not a legal requirement, but it is one of the most effective retention tools available because most employees underestimate what their employer actually spends on them. We can build these statements and, where you want them issued and tracked digitally, deliver them through HR:Duo via our HR software service.
We scope each piece of pay and reward work to your business and agree the fee in writing before we begin, so you know the cost in advance. It can run as a one-off project, such as a benchmarking exercise or a new grading structure, or sit within an ongoing outsourced HR retainer. See how we price HR support, then talk to us about what your business needs.