Tánaiste Joan Burton has indicated that she would like to see the Government move to pay all State employees a "living wage" which is significantly higher than national minimum wage levels.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin Castle on Wednesday, Ms Burton said a "living wage" was considered to be the level of income deemed necessary to meet basic needs such as housing, food, clothing, transport and healthcare.
Campaigners have argued that a living wage rate should be set at €11.50 per hour. This is significantly higher than the rate of the legally-binding national minimum wage which will increase to €9.15 per hour from early next year.
The Tánaiste said she would like to see a "living wage" introduced in Ireland on a voluntary basis in the first instance.
She said the Department of Social Protection is to provide €40,000 to fund the next phase of work for the "Living Wage" campaign.
She said this would “ scope out how such a campaign could be introduced in Ireland and what its framework would be”.
Trade union leaders have argued that the pay rate of general operatives in local authorities is set at about €9.40, significantly less than the proposed living wage rate.
Ms Burton said she hoped the Government would move towards having a living wage for State employees over time, but said the budgetary arrangements had not been finalised.
Asked about the pay rate in local authorities, she said it was a matter for unions and employers in the sector to sit down and talk but she would like to see the living wage rate put in place.
At the conference in Dublin Castle a number of employers including Ikea, Oxfam, energy company SSE, the Dublin Food Co-Op, Cluid Housing and the Labour Party all signed up to supporting the living wage.
Ms Burton signalled she believed that nearly €300 million paid by the exchequer in top-up income supplements to low-paid workers represented a State subsidy to some employers.
She said one of the great hidden truths about modern economies around the world was the degree to which the welfare state subsidised employers.
She said many critics of the welfare system did not realise that if this was “hollowed out” as they advocated, it would place additional pressure on many employers who they championed so heavily as the model of efficient enterprise.
She said the €280million in family income supplement payments, which is a tax free, top -up payment for low-paid workers with children, had assisted more than 50,000 families and 110,000 children.
Ms Burton said this money was well spent . However she argued that if such workers were paid a living wage they would not need such assistance from the State.
She said the money could be used in other ways, such as helping retired people or those who could not participate in the labour market as a result of health issues or disability.
The general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Patricia King said companies that paid the living wage in the UK must ensure their Irish subsidiaries and branches did likewise. She also urged that they should go further and by pledge their support for the congress charter for fair conditions at work.
Ms King said she was reassured to hear UK companies express support for the “living wage” but wondered at “the often open hostility of their Irish branches and subsidiaries, which we have experienced, to decent pay and conditions and the right to trade union representation”.
The employers’ group Ibec described the “living wage” concept as “flawed” and said it was the wrong way to address cost of living pressures.
Ibec head of industrial relations Maeve McElwee said: “The living wage concept is based on a large set of complex assumptions, to the point where no single hourly rate could ever be defined to address the needs of every type of individual and household. Many different rates can be identified depending on household demographics and geographical location.”
