Wage growth has hit a new 18-year low, adding to pressure on the Reserve Bank of Australia to follow its recent cut to the cash rate with another one in August.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday that the seasonally adjusted wage price index rose a mere 0.4 per cent in the March quarter this year, for a year-on-year rate of 2.1 per cent.

The ABS said the seasonally adjusted wage price index rose a mere 0.4 per cent in the March quarter this year, for a year-on-year rate of 2.1 per cent. Credit:AP

This is even lower than the 0.5 per cent and 2.2 per cent recorded in the December quarter last year, making it the weakest rate of growth since the first full year of the current wage price index in 1998. It was slightly below economists' expectations of 0.5 per cent for the quarter and 2.2 per cent for the year.

The last two quarters compare with 0.6 per cent in the three months to the end of September, for a year-on-year rate of 2.3 per cent.