Official figures show that average weekly earnings in the third quarter of this year were down 1.4% from the same period last year, with public sector earnings falling more sharply than those in the private sector.
Average weekly earnings were €685.10 in the three-month period, down from €694.69 a year earlier. The CSO said the fall was due to a 1.2% drop in average hourly pay and 0.3% fall in the number of hours worked.
Weekly earnings in the private sector were down 0.3% from a year earlier, while earnings in the public sector dropped by 4.5%, mainly because of pay cuts introduced in last year's Budget took effect. The CSO's figures do not take account of the public sector pension levy introduced in March last year.
Average pay fell in eight of the 13 categories, with the biggest drop of 12.3% in the education sector. Pay in the construction sector dropped 6.2% over the year.
Companies with between 50 and 250 workers showed the biggest falls in pay, with an annual drop of 3.4%, but pay in smaller and bigger companies was also down.
The CSO said other labour costs fell by 14.5% over the 12 months, meaning that total average labour costs fell by 3.1% from a year earlier to €24.42 per hour.
