The Mandate Trade Union has warned that employers will use increases in social welfare rates announced in the Budget to avoid raising wages.
General Secretary Gerry Light said Budget 2023 was, like all budgets, a "mixed bag".
He told the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that he does not think any increases in social welfare supports and State supports are a replacement for decent wages.
Mr Light warned that employers were already suggesting that they could "substitute" these social welfare increases for wage increases.
The committee is examining the minimum wage and cost-of-living crisis.
Mandate represents 27,000 workers, many in the retail sector where pay levels are relatively low.
Mr Light criticised the Government for moving "far too slow" towards introducing a living wage, and urged that this be "urgently" addressed.
The Low Pay Commission has recommended that a living wage of 60% of the median wage of all workers be set in law.
Mr Light said he does not have confidence that the Government will accomplish this, adding that he has seen "no evidence" that it will be introduced.
Pushing for an increase of the minimum wage to 14, Mr Light dismissed "all of the sabre-rattling and the scare-mongering" that raising the minimum wage would cost jobs.
Earlier this month, the Government accepted the recommendation of the Low Pay Commission to increase the National Minimum Wage by 80 cent to 11.30 per hour from 1 January 2023.
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