Official figures show that average pay fell again in the first three months of this year, but the decline was smaller than in previous quarters.
The Central Statistics Office said average hourly earnings dropped by 0.1% compared with a year earlier to €22.08.
Average hourly pay in the public and private sectors showed similar falls of 0.6% and 0.5% respectively. This was the first annual comparison which did not include the effect of public sector pay cuts introduced early last year.
The largest falls in pay were in the professional, scientific and technical (10%) and in construction (8.5%). But there was an 8.4% rise in the information and communications sector.
Hourly labour costs - which include employers' PRSI and pension contributions - were down 1.9% over the year to €24.97.
Separate CSO figures show that prices paid by businesses for services fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year from a year earlier. Prices dropped by 1.1% compared with the previous three-month period. Employment and human resource services showed the biggest drop, while there were also lower fees for architecture, engineering and technical testing.
