The Taoiseach has called for wage restraint in the next round of talks on a National Wage Agreement, which is due to get under way in February.
Addressing a meeting of the social partners he said wage increases under the current agreement Towards 2016 had cost the Government €1.7bn.
He defended the recent round of large pay rises for politicans and top civil servants.
He said unions and organised labour would understand that the pay hikes were awarded by an independent mechanism.
Mr Ahern acknowledged that in recent months the economic climate had deteriorated with growth forecast being scaled back to just 3.5%.
Leo Varadkar, Fine Gael's Enterprise spokesman, has criticised the Taoiseach's call and says he should lead by example.
Arriving for today's meeting, IBEC's Director General, Turlough O'Sullivan, said that while the economy was in sound shape, there were major challenges to be resolved.
He said employers would be happy enough to go ahead with a new national pay deal if it served the purposes of the economy and maintained competitiveness.
Meanwhile, the president of the country's largest union, SIPTU, said he wanted to hear what would be done to protect workers in the context of the race to the bottom in employment standards.
Jack O'Connor said that the recent pay review for senior staff showed that people at top levels in business were awarding themselves 'multiples of pay increases' at the expense of the people at the bottom.
Mr Cowen was expected to tell representatives of employers, unions, social organsations and farm bodies that a realistic approach to wage demands is essential to maintain competitiveness.
