Highest and lowest paid see gap widen

The cost of labour in Ireland grew by one of the smallest amounts of all EU countries over the four years to 2012 and showed the biggest gap between the highest and lowest paid sectors.

The figures, released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, also showed that Irish workers had the biggest drop in the number of hours they worked over the same period.

The best paid sector was education at €46 an hour, the highest in the EU and well above the eurozone average of €34.