Trade unions have criticised the Government’s decision to pause the introduction of a living wage.
It is different to the minimum wage and is defined as the least amount of income required for a single adult, working full-time, to afford a socially acceptable minimum standard of living in Ireland.
The living wage equates to 60% of median earnings and was originally scheduled for 2026 but the timeline was moved to 2029.
The Department of Enterprise said it was removing that timeline in order to provide certainty for employers.
In Budget 2027, it was confirmed that the minimum wage would increase by 79c to €14.94 an hour.
“The ink is not yet dry on yesterday’s so-called ‘workers’ budget’ and the Government is out today breaking their living wage promise to the country’s lowest paid workers,” said General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Owen Reidy.
SIPTU Deputy General Secretary Ethel Buckley said that by not announcing a new deadline for the living wage, the Government had all for practical purposes abandoned the policy.
“Hundreds of thousands of minimum wage and low-paid workers will now be expected to work for wages that fall short of an acceptable and adequate income,” Ms Buckley said.
The General Secretary of the Unite trade union Sharon Graham accused the Government of caving in to business lobbyists.
“A day after presenting a budget supposedly aimed at ‘making work pay’, the Government has betrayed Ireland’s lowest-paid workers by reneging on its pledge to introduce a statutory living wage,” she said.
