The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is recommending that unions in the private sector should seek to secure pay increases in the range of 4% to 6% in 2024, where affordable.
The Private Sector Committee of the ICTU said its pay bargaining guidance was based on an analysis of the prevailing conditions in the private sector of the economy.
The committee said unions should seek to improve the position of lower-paid workers through measures such as improving new entrant rates of pay.
ICTU also recommended that unions should strive to secure and protect weekly working hours; introduce and enhance service pay award; and secure additional non-pay benefits such as shorter working time, additional annual leave, increased sick pay benefits, and improved pension benefits.
Economic forecasts are projecting inflation in the region of 3% in 2024, but ICTU said pay increases will need to exceed that figure as workers are playing catch-up following real wage declines in 2022 and 2023.
"Ongoing gains in labour productivity across the economy and the need for cost of living 'catch-up' must be factored into consideration," said ICTU General Secretary Owen Reidy.
"As such, it is appropriate for unions to seek pay increases in the range of 4% to 6% in 2024," Mr Reidy said.
A public sector pay deal which will provide for pay increases of 10.25% over a two-and-a-half year period was agreed last month at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Public sector unions are expected to ballot their members on the deal over the coming weeks.
Declan Flanagan is a construction worker and member of SIPTU.
He is welcoming today's call from ICTU for private sector pay increases of up to 6%.
"I think it's a great idea because the cost of living is very high," Mr Flanagan said.
"People are worse off and, in my industry, we are losing construction workers," he added.
But employers in the hospitality sector say the kinds of pay increases being recommended by ICTU are simply unaffordable.
Paul Lenehan runs Hartes of Kildare and is President of the Restaurants Association of Ireland.
"We'd like to see all our staff paid more, of course we would," Mr Lenehan said.
"But at the end of the day it has to come from somewhere and in this current environment, in the climate we are in, it's just not there," he added.
