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[Closed] Public sector pay - what happens next?

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Glad to see some public sector workers are getting pay rises above 1% now, but obviously not matching inflation which isn't great.

However there are parts of the public sector which aren't covered by pay review bodies. Are they going to be stuck with 1% for a long time yet. A statistic I have heard a couple of time is that public sector workers have had an effective 10% pay cut since the financial crisis as their wage increases have lagged behind inflation for many years now.

For me I'm not one of the blue light responders so uniikely to be classed in the public as important but I am a Category One responder like the police and fire brigade. We certainly have a huge problem with retention and morale now especially for people who've been in the jobs for a number of years who also have vital much needed expertise and experience. Those people are going to leave soon.

I don't agree with strikes and will never strike myself but I know a lot of PS workers have been very patient for many years but that patience is wearing thin.

What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:38 pm
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What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?

I know that in a lot of sectors, if you have stayed evens then you're doing well - lots of companies have had to do rounds of voluntary pay reductions to minimise redundancies. We got 2% which is well over and above the average in our sector.

There seems to be a myth that private sector employees get big pay rises every year. Simply isn't true.

My own pay did go up quite a lot, but that was due to a promotion and being able to demonstrate justification for giving me more money (i.e making more profit for the company). But it's far from a blanket thing.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:45 pm
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What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?

Each pay rise I've had recently has come about by me moving roles to another company. I can't remember the last time I had an in service pay review.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:49 pm
 km79
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What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?
I have had yearly pay rises for the past eight years between 1 - 2%. Probably overall below inflation for the same period.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:50 pm
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What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?

I get paid 5% less now than I did when I was made redundant in 2012.

It's taken me five years and 4 jobs to build it back up to that level from the 27% pay drop that i experienced.

In an industry with high mobility of staff and a variable supply of work the salaries are almost entirely market driven. You are only worth as much as the next guy who is prepared to take less to do your job.

The stability of the public sector is not without it's attractions.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:53 pm
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Just to check, it's 1% [u]plus[/u] progression awards, isn't it?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 4:57 pm
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Need to include pensions and job security to get decent picture, but in answer

Early naughtiest Pu > PvS
2006-7 Pv > Pu
2008-11 Pu> Pv comfortably
Then mixed
2014- Pv > Pu

Recently Pv trending 2-2.5%; Pu 1-1.8%


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:03 pm
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In other part of the world when the public sector gets a pay rise the inevitable consequences always happen ... leading to faster price increase of everything everywhere. 🙄

In the far east when public sector gets a pay rise the entire population suffer. Fact. 🙄

In the far east pay rise for private sector is practically unheard of ... 🙄

Also the public sector (far east) get generous pension, while for the private sector everyone relies on their saving to see them through their retirement. Or for their children to look after them after retirement or beg for a living. 🙄


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:05 pm
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DUP just voted against government on NHS pay rise motion.

That £1 billion looks like money well spent 🙂

[url= http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-suffer-defeat-on-labour-motion-calling-for-higher-pay-for-nhs-staff-a7945241.html ]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/conservatives-suffer-defeat-on-labour-motion-calling-for-higher-pay-for-nhs-staff-a7945241.html[/url]


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:05 pm
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wage data released today said that average wage increase was 2.1%

So if public sector were locked to 1%, that suggests that private sector must have averaged over 2.1 to drag up the overall average.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:06 pm
 sbob
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Just to check, it's 1% plus progression awards, isn't it?

Our progression awards have been scrapped a couple of years ago, so someone who comes into my job newly qualified gets paid the same as me, which is annoying as I spent years of hard graft to get to that level. Only way I can get paid more than the 1% is to apply for a new job a grade up.

I was judged as being exceptional last year and working way beyond my pay grade but I just get 1% pay rise same as everyone else, there is a hint I might get a small non pensionable bonus (not an addition to pay) but it'll be fractions of a percent (probably less than £100 minus tax) and that'll be only if other people are judged to not be performing as expected therefore don't get their 1%. Overall pay increases across the 10,000 workforce have to average at 1%.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:24 pm
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Stat on pm show last night was that private sector wages dropped in 2007, public sector down on 2010. Both are down about 10% on their peaks so both sectors in similar boat. Apparently.

Edit: in real terms


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:42 pm
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It's worth noting that whilst the Gov seems to be softening on PS pay caps, they're not offering any more money for it - do we think the Police, the Prison Service, The NHS or the Fire Service (amongst others) are sitting on a budget surplus just waiting for the cap to go so they can pay everyone a bit more?

It feels like they fancy shifting the blame down the road a bit.

Could help though, I know my Wife's team is spending a fortune on agency staff because they can't maintain staff levels and it's the most experienced, best qualified nurses going because they're topped out on their band. The younger less experienced ones are staying pace with inflation by incremental pay rises.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:56 pm
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I'm not sure comparing public to private sectors is helpful in the case of emplyers of either type who are struggling to retain and recruit staff.

I sit with much excitment waiting on the teachers massive pay rise!!!


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 5:58 pm
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It feels like they fancy shifting the blame down the road a bit.

Indeed


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:05 pm
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What the Tories are doing is what they always do. Divide and rule.

So with the help of their friends in the press, having driven a resentful wedge between the public and private sector, they're now moving on to dividing the 'worthy' and unworthy' parts of the public sector.

It stinks!

I'm freelance and in my industry the hourly rates are exactly the same as they were 10 years ago. Not a single incling of a rise in rates, except maybe in London

So the question we need to be asking is why we've had an economy where wages for the vast majority of public and private sector workers have essentially stagnated for a decade, at the same time as the wealth of those at the top has risen exponentially

The rich have done very nicely out of recession and subsequent austerity. Corporations have had their tax (which they don't bother to pay anyway) slashed

An interesting stat for you: if the minimum wage had been pegged to the rises in boardroom pay since its introduction, it would presently stand at £22 an hour

Let's direct the anger where it's due! Because Brexit will be used, once again,as an opportunity to redistribute wealth upwards, just as the post-crash crisis has


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:22 pm
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Those needed to control riots are getting a (small) pay rise.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:26 pm
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That's exactly what I thought to Harry. There's only one group they want to keep on-side


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:28 pm
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The rich have done very nicely out of recession and subsequent austerity [sic]

Not they haven't, but let's not details get in the way.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:31 pm
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Those needed to control riots are getting a (small) pay rise.

We aren't getting a pay rise - we are getting 1% when inflation is at 2.9%, and we are getting a 1% bonus to be payed over a year, is taxable and calculated using last year's pay scales. The bonus is to come from individual Forces existing budgets, so the exercise hasn't cost the Government a penny.

I'm not knocking the extra money (about £450 gross for me and the same for my wife) but rest assured that every copper in the business knows it is a cynical headline grabbing ploy by the Conservatives and there is not an ounce of good will earned by this measure.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:39 pm
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Not they haven't, but let's not details get in the way.

Sauce?

Everything I've read on the subject has shown a greater gap between rich and poor and an increasing number of millionaires and billionaires being 'created' year on year.

The rich have gotten significantly richer in the last 8 years.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:46 pm
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Just for you THM....

[url= http://www.****/news/article-2987885/Rich-64-richer-financial-crash-poor-lost-HALF-wealth.html ]Straight from the hotbed of revolutionary socialism.... the Daily Mail[/url]

Do feel free to cite any contradictory evidence about those poor souls on their uppers, and down to their last few million


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 6:48 pm
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Not as simple as it looks. You may give your employees. ore than 1% pay rise, but it comes from your existing budget.

So if you want a pay rise, leave the office stationary where it is...


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:07 pm
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Sauce?

Official stats - better than the Daily Wail - bins the irony of you resorting to the Wail is delicious 😉

The rich have gotten significantly richer in the last 8 years.

I'll hand it to you, that does at least make for a better sounding story. The truth is v dull in contrast


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:23 pm
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Price controls can't work forever.

I hope Theresa May has some idea about what to do about this, as post-Brexit, upwards wage pressure can only increase given that we'll be putting up a barrier to entry for cheap(er) foreign labour.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:30 pm
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A statistic I have heard a couple of time is that public sector workers have had an effective 10% pay cut since the financial crisis as their wage increases have lagged behind inflation for many years now.

It's more likely that the effective cut is more due to increased pension contributions over the last few years.

The junior/middle grades in my department are a year into very generous wage increases (about 5%), due to 'not opting out' of contractual changes, which may go some way to explaining the PM's statement I caught the back-end of on the radio earlier.

As eluded to above, comparisons of public/private wages is pointless unless talking outside of generalist grades, and even then any comparisons bring multiple discrepancies, most of which can't be quantified.

When the general economy means that wage rises are commonplace , then public sector will follow suit. It needs to retain staff as much as anyone, and you know, unions.

Of course using the emergency services, health staff etc generates argumentative responses (also see: pre-cooked sausages), but it's a larger economy issue, rather than public v private, but views like that won't generate income for the media folk that thrive on outrage 🙂


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:33 pm
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An interesting stat for you: if the minimum wage had been pegged to the rises in boardroom pay since its introduction, it would presently stand at £22

And what would have happened to the jobs market in that case?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:35 pm
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Progression vanished years ago!

Absolutely agree that the emergency services deserve a bigger rise, but those of us who collect the taxes that pay for it all are suffering as well, and from a lower starting salary.

Plus the big increases in our pension contributions.

My take home pay has been stable due to the tax threshold going up so much during the same period. Shame about the inflation....


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:40 pm
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[url= https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rich-double-their-wealth-in-five-years-bb7w5nv58dz ]So still not producing any actual evidence then Hurty?[/url]

Come on.... don't.be coy. Stop [s]trolling[/s] teasing us 😀

Oh... do excuse my resorting to the usual socialist publications


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:44 pm
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Posted it loads of times my old China - but don't want to stop a good rant. Much more fun to watch you wail against the RW press and then use the actual Wail as a source.

You could check the official stats if you want, but I wouldn't advise it 😉


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:46 pm
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That's a no then?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:47 pm
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No it's a, "much more fun to let your rant on, quoting the Wail". You can have that one, it's worth it......as I said the real story is far too dull


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:49 pm
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Typical, I get 'Dismissed due to medical inefficiency' from the prison service then a pay rise comes along. Being on part time that would've been worth £200 a year to me!


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:53 pm
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Bugger, I was thinking about you essel, assuming you were a beneficiary. Sorry to hear that


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:54 pm
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What's the pay increases in the private sector like over the last few years?

-60% (lost good job, got shit job)


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 7:58 pm
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Glory be, is it to much to ask of any government that the people they effectively employ aren't put at a financial disadvantage every year?

And now we should be grateful that public sector workers aren't [i]quite[/i] as financially worse off than they could be?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:13 pm
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They are not. On the contrary the are better off than their private sector peers. Is it too much to ask a government to address this REAL inequality?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:29 pm
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Pfft, we're not getting it, and even if we did the MOD just raise the price of accommodation and food charges, so it doesn't actually benefit the lads and lasses. Ah well, no wars, back to being second class citizens. Until there is a fuel strike/fire strike/flood/Internal security issue.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:37 pm
 Drac
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Of course not but the private sector pay isn't controlled by the government.

I've had no increment for 7 years, which isn't gauranteed anyway and my pension isn't a pay rise either so no idea why you bring this up every thread on a the public sector. It would be nice just to keep up with the cost of living.


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:37 pm
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Would that be the hugely increased chasm between rich and poor then Hurty?

Don't worry. Theresa has raked at length about batting for the 'just about managing'

And she's not just talked about it! She's put her money where her mouth is. She's...... erm..... welll she's..... erm ....... no.......

George massively cut corporation tax though. I'm sure that helped

The proposal about public sector pay has just put into focus how totally devoid of ideas this government is. It's insulting!

While their energies are being expended exclusively on Brexit. Which is just going to make things ten times worse!


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:38 pm
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Would you like them to take the offer back?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:40 pm
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They are not. On the contrary the are better off than their private sector peers. Is it too much to ask a government to address this REAL inequality?

Why does private sector and public sector pay have to be linked? Tell me, who is the private sector peer to a professional nurse who's been assaulted three times this year already?


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:41 pm
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Divide and rule


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:42 pm
 Drac
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Would you like them to take the offer back?

WOW! Is that your response. 😆


 
Posted : 13/09/2017 8:43 pm
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