New Figures Confirm Pay Rates Not Falling
22 Dec 2009
New figures on pay rates confirm what Congress has been saying about general wage trends, Paul Sweeney Economic Advisor to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said today (December 22).
Citing newly- released figures of earnings from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Mr Sweeney said they showed that: "Core hourly wages and salaries in the private sector remained stable and grew slightly in most sectors in the second quarter of 2009.
"While there are some reductions in weekly earnings, they are not in basic pay rates for most workers in the private sector, but in hours worked, bonuses and other irregular payments. Those reductions are reversed when the climate improves.
"The real hit on pay is in the public sector and in the sectors which contributed most to the collapse of the Irish economy - finance, construction and real estate," Mr. Sweeney said.
Public sector pay cuts averaged 6.9 percent from March 2009 and are not factored into this published data.
"The CSO figures show that pay grew most in larger firms which are generally more efficient. Substantial rises of over 4 percent were in industry and education in Q2, though pay in public sector education would be down in reality."
Mr Sweeney said that the fall in employment from 1.77m to 1.66m in the year posed the greatest challenge and the impact of the deflationary Budget will be felt in greater job losses.
Mr Sweeney also pointed out Ireland was still performing well on productivity and unit labour costs:
"It is worth noting that Ireland still has one of the highest levels of productivity in the world. However, the last three quarters - including Q2, 2009 - saw the biggest fall in unit labour costs in the 30 state OECD occurring in Ireland. This is in contrast to substantial increases in unit labour costs in the Eurozone area according to OECD (15th Nov 2009).
"This again undermines Minister Lenihan's claim that Irish unit labour costs are the highest in the Eurozone," Mr Sweeney concluded.
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