New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that average hourly earnings for 2010 were 1.6% lower than in 2009. This follows a 2.5% increase recorded between 2008 and 2009.
The CSO figures show that average hourly earnings declined by 1.9% in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to the same time the previous year. Hourly earnings fell from €22.38 an hour in the last three months of 2009 to €21.96 in the last three months of 2010.
The CSO says that average hourly earnings in the public sector fell by 4.9% compared with a fall of just 0.3% in the private sector. However, earnings in the public sector are calculated before the deduction of the pension levy that was introduced in March 2009.
The figures also reveal that average weekly paid hours fell to 31.8 in the last quarter of 2010, a slight fall of 0.3 hours or 0.9% over the year.
Weekly paid hours in the private sector fell by 0.6% over the year from 32 hours to 31.8 hours. The same fall over the year was recorded in the public sector with paid hours a week falling from 32.3 to 32.1 (0.6%).
