Public sector workers, whats your pay rise?

Variable - 5% with some grades getting less to "smooth out curves" and the lower grades getting more.

I don't know yet. I'm expecting 3-4% I also think there might be some background discussions about shifting to a 4 day week, just not sure if my employer is bold enough to stick their head over the parapet to be one of the first.

I think where there is no budget for pay rise (i.e. everywhere), changes in working patterns is not a bad alternative. Appreciate this is not possible for all workplaces and politically it is difficult to do, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't try..

My bit of the civil service is coming to the end of what seemed a very generous 3 year deal after 10 years of austerity, although various terms and benefits were removed as part of the deal.

Low expectations for next year,even if the Tories sack 20% of the civil service as Boris was planning.

Wife is local government, got 1.5% and expects the same again.

We are OK at the moment,but I have just voted for strike action to show support for colleagues who are not as fortunate and are beginning to struggle.

5% for my wife - NHS Scotland. As hels says there is also a "floor" rate so the lowest paid get a slightly higher increase.

Civil service, Non-departmentmental government body.

We have not even been told what we are getting yet for 2022 yet it should have been announced in April and brought in shortly after. It will probably be quite low 1-2%.
We also have this strange pay system where certain roles get a far better increase than other very similar roles - it’s all pretty crap and divisive tbh.
Last year they introduced a scheme at my grade where the pay rise would’ve been a wage decrease and a removal of overtime pay - strangely not many opted into that scheme.

We are not allowed to strike, by law, otherwise I’d be up for that.

My employer (Fire service) have just revised their offer to us up from 2%, which was frankly insulting considering the last 12 years and the current inflation rate, to 5% which whilst isn’t exactly going to be life changing is I think likely to be the best we would get even if we did take industrial action.

the problem with all this is there is no new money that comes  from the magic money tree that the tories shake bare regularly to bail them out. Any rise has to come within the existing budget, so there will be cuts job losses/natural wastage etc within all PS.

Its the Tory way

Arms length Government body, Environment sector.

2% fixed value consolidated pay increase.
Unconsolidated (one off) award of £750 or £1110 depending on performance rating.
5% increase to standby

Unions haven't agreed it yet, it was due in July.

Think it was 1.75%, but was a sliding scale dependent on grade, so some got 3% in a bid to narrow the pay bands i believe, those on under a set amount were brought up to a higher minimum so had higher, but more varying pay rises.

3% most likely - I'm a professional services manager at a University. It's currently under negotiation with unions, but our exec start paying us the uplift whilst in negotiation so we don't have to get back pay unless they agree to a higher figure. Last uni i worked at didn't do this and we once had to wait 11 months to get our uplift
I don't expect we'll get anymore, but it would be nice as the most I've had in the last 8 years is 1.5% and usually 1%

We're a real living wage employer so lowest bands just got 10%+

Dept for Education = 3.5% and an unconsolidated £500 (that's for financial year 2022-23, it was confirmed in August as usual).

It was 18%, however it was also too late because as you might expect from such an increase, I was chronically underpaid and leaving.

@Bruneep - the job losses within the PS aren't too bad a thing as in my experience with dealing with many facets is that there is a lot of dead wood anyway and over bloating of people who really do not do that much. You just wouldn't get away with it in the private sector. As long the losses come from the right area then it could be a good thing for the remaining staff.

NHS, think its 4% gross but not worked it out properly as Pensions contributions % going up next month, this always happens every pay increase.

4% which is leading to ballots for a dispute.

I was PS for 29.5 yrs there is only so much you can cut and demoralise the staff as you do so.

More dead wood in HOC yet they seem immune from any cuts to fund their "independent pay rises" that they get awarded

NHS here 4%, however increased pension contributions have seen at least 2 of my colleagues who are at the lower end of the pay scales taking home less money.
Union is balloting for strike action although I understand that the government is looking to outlaw strike action within the NHS (and other organisations)

University - 3% with additional 2% for a year, which means no pay rise next year effectively. Some lower grades re-aligned, but they really need more ! Unison strikes at present over pay.

there is a lot of dead wood anyway and over bloating of people who really do not do that much

My experience of the Civil Service is that they don't target the "dead wood and people who really do not do that much" in any cuts.

I can only speak for ministerial depts, but any remaining dead wood was all gone by about 2018 - we've been hacking into the heartwood for quite a while.

Police - we got a blanket payment of £1900 for all ranks. So depending on rank - between 8-5 %.

@bruneep yes I was aware that the government are refusing to fund any rise, and I have only seen the release from the union so I don't know what the employers side is proposing to fund the new offer. I suspect that where I am (London) there are some savings that could be made, but the service has already been cut massively since 2010 including shutting 10% of our stations. I suspect we'll find out before long.

the job losses within the PS aren’t too bad a thing as in my experience with dealing with many facets is that there is a lot of dead wood anyway and over bloating of people who really do not do that much. You just wouldn’t get away with it in the private sector. As long the losses come from the right area then it could be a good thing for the remaining staff.

Yep, the loss of all those public sector jobs hasn't caused too many issues over the last 10 years.

Not enough taxes being collected, not enough Police, not enough CPS and court staff to get justice for victims, not enough social workers to stop kids dying, not enough teachers to deliver education and chances to the next generation, not enough people in the NHS to bring down waiting lists, not enough environmental enforcement to stop all that shit in the rivers, not enough people to process the backlog of asylum claims,not enough passport staff to let people go on holiday.....etc etc

Yeah, we're all a pile of lazy spongers we can do without.

I'm not hearing about soaring productivity in the private sector, funnily enough.

I think ours works out at about 4% (NHS) but they're changing the pension contributions from next month so I think my pension actually goes down a bit.

I'm quite happy with it tbh as our wages aren't bad at all.

I’m a research software engineer at one of the national labs.
I’ll get 2% this year, following the 0% we got last year.
We are massively underpaid compared to our market value and have real trouble with retention and recruitment. One of my colleagues literally doubled his wage when he moved into the private sector.
“Think of the pension” has become something of a mantra.

Central government. 2% overall but bottom end of pay bands getting a bit more than those at the top so probably 1-3% for individuals.

Think I may be in the same civil service department as MCTD. @lamp 's comments are a bit unpleasant, deliberately confrontational and a simple troll. There's no dead wood left anywhere that I can see within my end of the civil service or the other public organisations that I deal with; everyone is working flat out to bring in funds and provide the best services that we can in terrible conditions. Yet, those in better paid work out in the private sector love to throw mud around without any knowledge of what it means to have vast backlogs of work and not enough resources to deal with it.
We're still far behind the curve, after ten + years of austerity, 0 or 1% rises all that time, punishing pension increases and more NI too. So despite 5% earlier this year, 5% last year and 3 the year before, I'm still taking home about the same as I was 15 years ago. Try that for size..
I've also spent most of that time under a continuing threat of redundancy, an office closure where many did reluctantly leave, with then a brief reprieve for a temporary move to a transitional site and impending redundancy again. Then a last minute stay of execution to become a rare homeworker attached to a regional centre far away. So all my new colleagues and support network are a couple of hours travel away. Over 400 jobs gone from Dundee and barely a peep from the press.

I reckon by a rough thought or two, I've only received pay rises in about half the years I've been working. So, I've certainly been losing out for years. Who knows what we will get this year. German company, their economy is probably worse than ours and they are known for tightening the belts early. My job is likely at risk next year.

Original offer was 2% gone up to 5%. Balloting for strike action. Last year's pay rise was made on the promise that this year's would have been inflation+ if they'd offered 5% at first negotiation we'd probably have accepted it.

Every year negotiation starts in fed and it take almost a year for the agreement so back pay is almost always crippling.

1.8% average, union rejected, revised offer of 2.2% which union supported and was approved, low paid workers had reasonable rises

Pisstake

Funny enough we have a massive retention problem and roughly 40% turnover

Re think of the pension, ours has been eroded so it’s slightly worse than you’d get with a bank. And I keep expecting there to be a raid on what is already there on the grounds of affordability? Illegal probably, but they have form of trying to pull fast ones. Ie, the age discrimination cockup last time they “reformed”…..ie… stripped your contractual benefits back

I’m also expecting the redundancy terms to be changed based on the fact they will be looking to cut back on the PS

I'm in Higher Education (professional services rather than academic):

2020: 0%
2021: 1%
2022: 3%

Almost a carbon copy of @nerd.

I’m a scientific software engineer at an arms length body.
We haven't got details of this FY. Meant to be announce "ASAP" after April but last financial year's rise of 1% wasn't confirmed until November/December last year.
We are massively underpaid compared to our market value and have real trouble with retention and recruitment.
“Think of the pension” has become something of a mantra.

2% This is my 13th year without a proper pay rise. Sounds like I work for the same people as pictonroad.

Think I may be in the same civil service department as MCTD.......There’s no dead wood left anywhere that I can see within my end of the civil service or the other public organisations that I deal with;

I agree there's no dead wood left -old attitudes (plus their useful experience) had mostly gone by 2018.

Not to say there aren't issues with inefficiency and poor management, usually due to ever changing government priorities.

Not seeing many people lining up to take these cushy easy jobs they like to say exist

2% after the department refused to meet the union with ACAS
original offer was c.3.5%/yr for 3 yrs with reduction of holiday, sick and redundancy

Not seeing many people lining up to take these cushy easy jobs they like to say exist

On the flip side why complain but stay put when you could be earning more with less pressure in the private sector?

I last worked in the public sector 15 years ago and there were plenty of people getting by doing the bare minimum leaving others to cover their work. From friends who still work in the public sector that's still true but but those who actually care have even more to do.

On the flip side why complain but stay put when you could be earning more with less pressure in the private sector?

Some of us like to feel that we're doing useful work, rather than just making some psychopath businessman even richer or helping some American megacorp destroy the planet.

This is particularly prescient in the tech sector. I could work for Facebook for 3 times my salary but I think that Facebook are an evil corporation that have damaged the mental health of countless adults and children. I could work for Amazon with their Union busting.

I know people who work for private companies that moan about lazy bastards doing nothing, so don't come on here making out it's only the PS that has lazy people.

for @Gribs, I have my own escape plan in place, which requires more training and involves a career change when I hit the age I can claim the first chunk of pension, relatively shortly.
These days it's more that we're desperately filling in where gaps rapidly appear all across the business; few new staff stay for long. New entrants rapidly realise that there's no truth in the 'pay scale', so that they realise they're going to be stuck at the bottom forever until or unless you get promoted. Many newcomers, especially the young, seem to think that they are experienced and ready for promotion at 18-24 moths, which is hilarious as it takes a good ten years to become truly proficient at what can be a very tricky and confrontational job at times. It's utterly thankless, which is why I'm leaving as soon as I can. The snidey comments dripping down from Westmonster don't exactly help; nor does the partisanship and division being deliberately stoked in every single field of UK politics. Anti-growth..? Anyone who resists is labelled by truss in an attempt to divide.

I should make it clear that I certainly wouldn't go back to work in the public sector with the state it's in. Better pay for productive existing staff and competitive recruitment would be a start, along with getting rid of the less productive existing staff. That's obviously easier said than done and true for most workplaces.

I'm a teacher in a sixth form college.

Last year we were offered an increase of 1% from 1 September 2021 on all pay points and allowances and an additional 0.5% pay increase on pay points 6, 7 and 8. So, as someone on point 9, I got 1%.

Negotiations for September 2022 are still ongoing, because they usually wait to see what happens in schools and try to match that. My union is balloting on strike action, so that tells you how they're going.

Since 2010 we've had 0% or below inflation pay rises, increased pension contributions for a worse pension, and a 5% increase in contact time with more students per class. So, doing more work for less money.

New entrants rapidly realise that there’s no truth in the ‘pay scale’, so that they realise they’re going to be stuck at the bottom forever until or unless you get promoted

I think this is the real kicker. When the jobs are advertised they advertise the pay band as being between X and Y per year. However, policy is to pay the recruit at the band minimum, despite any previous experience! So they are paid X. There is no "point per year" pay scale increment, and hasn't been for ten years. So there is absolutely no way to progress to Y. It's false advertising, really.
The only way to get more money is get promoted, but that is like dead-man's shoes and narrows rapidly once you get to my grade (band E for any UKRI people).

The only way to get more money is get promoted

and then just end up stuck at the bottom of that scale (as I have been for a number of years)

moving across to a comparable job, directly opposite in the private sector for me would require a complete suspension of morals, which I'm not prepared to do. So I stay put and do my best to support this country and more importantly, the people who live in it by being as effective as I can in an important job.

moving across to a comparable job, directly opposite in the private sector for me would require a complete suspension of morals, which I’m not prepared to do. So I stay put and do my best to support this country and more importantly, the people who live in it by being as effective as I can in an important job.

For me too.

I could move but as a teacher in Scotland I'd be on the same. I could move in private sector but in teaching that means moving and I've already been there.
I have project management experience from MoD work years ago when I managed 2 £3mill per year projects.
I like where I live and everyday the kids make me laugh with their genuine happiness and cry with the shocking conditions some have to endure.
To be honest education and I'd guess a lot of other services are on their knees and will be cut more. It's not as though the pension is what it used to be.

Teachers were 5% wasn't it? But that is on the back of a decade of below inflation rises (even though inflation was low). I think it'll be enough to stop strikes. What I would strike about is the fact it has to be found from existing budget so it will negatively impact learning and teacher workload.

Secondary school teacher on UPS2, been told there's no chance of anyone going up a band on the pay-scale this year due to budgets (even though I've ticked all the boxes for 3 years now).

DfE provisionally offered 5% earlier this year, but seem to have gone quiet.
We're being balloted by union this week.
So I imagine strikes will happen in 2023.

a_a yep Scottish teachers offered 5% as I say if they'd offered it day1 of negotiations it'd probably have been accepted as it was above inflation at the time. But they dragged their heals and now inflation is well ....

Secondary school teacher on UPS2, been told there’s no chance of anyone going up a band on the pay-scale this year due to budgets

Ask them to put it in writing!
Then apply and challenge them not to.
Then move schools...

Scottish teacher here too. The Unions eventually conceded to a 2.12% (or something very similar) in February 2022 to settle the at-that-time-still-outstanding 2021 claim. They said at that point that they would be pursuing a 10% claim for 2022-2023, and that was before the current inflationary pressures kicked off.

We have been balloted on accepting the offer of 5% - on a 78% turnout, 94% rejected the offer ans 91% supported strike action. We are now in a statutory ballot for strike action which will in all likelyhood go ahead. No one that I have spoken to actually wants to strike, but morale is at rock bottom and teaching salaries have a long history of below-inflation rises then a correction once a blue moon.

The only way to get more money is get promoted..
.
and then just end up stuck at the bottom of that scale (as I have been for a number of years)

with absolutely no personal offence intended, thats what they call "promoted to your level of incompetence"

i echo highlandmans sentiments.

Weve been offered 3% by employer, lower scales upto 9%.
Like a lot of public sector we struggle to recruit and retain (HE).

moving across to a comparable job, directly opposite in the private sector for me would require a complete suspension of morals, which I’m not prepared to do. So I stay put and do my best to support this country and more importantly, the people who live in it by being as effective as I can in an important job.

Private sector is also full of dead wood and people just doing the minimum to get by etc. We don't have low productivity in the G7 for nothing - it's been hard earned by lack of investment, poor education, poor health and poverty wages! Although, apparently it was all to have been solved by abolishing the 45% tax bracket and removing the cap on bankers bonuses.

Ask them to put it in writing!
Then apply and challenge them not to.
Then move schools…

😆 Tempting, but it's not that they necessarily don't want to, but I suspect there's bugger all in the kitty.

They trimmed SLT by 2 members last year, and we have hardly any TAs. Times are tight.

I have been looking around, but jobs seem to be thin on the ground in the SW this year.

5% has been offered to civilian police staff in Scotland up from the derisory initial offer. Police officers accepted 5% but we're being balloted on this offer at the moment. Will see what happens.

Got about 4% which was better than the 0% last year but with inflation is no better than the 1% I got the previous few years

Worked in both private and public sector over the years and found just as many sometimes more lazy hiding away types in the private sector than the public. The main difference been those in the private sector tend to talk a good show to hide their uselessness!!

Always chuckle how the government seem to blame the public sector for all the economic woes until the sh@t hits the fan!

I don’t work in the public sector and reading this is depressing and anger inducing. Teachers, nurses, emergency services workers all deserve paying way more than they get. It’s ridiculous the amount of work they put in for the monetary reward. More so when you consider what crucial roles they all play in society.

I’m the sole earner in my family and we’re staring to struggle, but I’d happily pay more tax if it went to the aforementioned peoples pay. We’d be royally screwed without these (you) people doing what you do.

We’re still agreeing the details as some of our employees are under national agreements on negotiations and some aren’t. But it looks like everyone will get a fixed £2k pay rise irrespective of salary. This is probably quite a good way of dealing with some of the cost of living challenges as those on the lowest pay grades are likely to struggle the most.

Oh and I’m at a Combined Authority (city region in other words).

Civil servant not yet agreed but told to prepare for disappointment in the 1.5 to 2% range, nothing last year. Wife is NHS got about 4% backdated to April arrears were completely eaten up in increased pension contribution and moving forwards it's about 1.8% more.

. Yet, those in better paid work out in the private sector love to throw mud around without any knowledge of what it means to have vast backlogs of work and not enough resources to deal with it.

If you think that and under inflation pay rises are a public sector only problem I fear you may need to modify your understanding of the private sector.

I don't mean that harshly I just find it tiring when either side thinks the other lives in some kind of utopia that doesn't have all the problems of the other just dressed up in different clothes. Those average private sector pay rises and bonuses you hear about aren't going to the shop floor they're usually concentrated near the top.

There are real parallels between austerity and some styles of private sector management.

You cut everything in terms of internal services, investment and people to the bone then cut some more and you beat up your supply chain so they do the same.

You then ask those people and resources to do more to deliver the same or more of your services/product. All sound vaguely familiar? You then give the difference to your owners...

The fundamental difference to those down the food/salary chain is that with public sector austerity you cut the top line income (tax) and then hack away at the costs whereas in the private sector drive for profits you demand growth in cash in, squeeze the spending etc.

Not all the private sector is like this and of course it's more complex because shareholder profits go in a large part to pension companies and the like who have invested people's savings for their retirement and that's important too.

All the above oversimplified on my part but that's the general gist of it to me.

The reality is neither the private sector nor the public sector can exist without the other and unless we make very big changes to our retirement model we can't live into our retirements without "greedy shareholders" either.

We need better rises in the income groups who can least afford it regardless of their sector. The rest of us may need to take a little squeeze to make it happen.

I should add that in the current world of crazy inflation that some private sector businesses cannot pass cost increases on (including staff costs) so the only way to manage that and keep the business alive is to squeeze everything for survival, which has the same effect except the shareholders aren't getting their bit.

As strange as this may seem but we do understand that both sectors are having it tight.
There does still seem to be myths about public sector. Heehaw work done, unsackable, gold plated free pensions, early retirement to the good life and generally a land of ambrosia.
Watch what happens to the language used in papers when pay rounds come round or services are to be cut, lazy teachers/doctors/nurses. Fire service sleeping all shift before heading off to second job, teachers holidays etc etc etc

Im an ACP in a GP Practice - so no pay rise at all this year as GP Practices are pretty much private businesses and the staff are covered by AfC. My yearly review is due in 4 weeks - a Practice closer to me are offering 20% higher wage than what im getting currently so thats my negotiating position to start with....

Buzz our brigade has budgeted for up to 7 percent but was told they have to give what they are told by the employer, they kept it aside as they expected it coming, im surprised other brigades didn't plan ahead tbh it seems many thought the money would magically appear

@firestarter apparently the mayor of London had offered to fund a 5% rise for the LFB but the union declined it due to it being a national issue. I don't know if you've heard any different but I heard today that each individual service is being asked to cover the difference between the 2% and 5%, some of the county brigades have flatly said they don't have the money, but the NJC went ahead and made the offer regardless. Be interested to know what you're hearing where ever you are.

5% back dated to April NHS

We just got told from the chief he had set aside the funds for a rise but was not allowed to pay us it as it was a nationwide thing, but smaller brigades have no money
There are murmurs London and Scotland have been pushing for different agreements but seems unlikely, im west yorks btw

Ours hasn't been agreed yet, but I'm haemorrhaging staff to the private sector because I can't match their salaries.

Teachers, nurses, emergency services workers all deserve paying way more than they get

Don't forget all the other public sector workers who construct and maintain the buildings, make sure the IT works, works in admin, does the finance, the HR, the cleaning, catering, transportation, procurement, environmental management, health and safety, data analysis, policy development and implementation, staff training, grounds maintenance, security, reception, portering, legal...
The list goes on and is a fraction of the amount of specialisms that I've missed

Some of us do have analogous roles in private sector and we're more often than not well behind in real world earnings than our equivalents since austerity started. There's bigger peaks and troughs in private, but we've been shafted for over a decade

with absolutely no personal offence intended, thats what they call “promoted to your level of incompetence

No idea what’s the point of that, but tbh fairly drunk atm 🙂

If I mess my job up people can die, not big things that have no impact as Stalin said m but savage individual murder, before that it was kids getting raped. Public service has given me a fair old whack of ptsd.

Welcome to the world of public service in 2022

Teacher in Scotland and a union rep. We will be out in the new year, offered 3.5 then 4.5 then 5% by COSLA after last years piss take. Wages have dropped 20% in value in the last decade while workload has soared. All against a background of having to go to the Supreme Court to get the pension we signed up for. Anybody needing a site agent/ estimator? That was easier.

Duckman did you end up in court I was under the impression that it was only the fire fighters and judges that went to court and it was to the benefit of all

NHS here too so I guess as others. Not all pension contributions are going up, some bandings are seeing it going down.

whether you agre with incremental points or not, they are much less favourable than they used to be.

Mrs FD is s surgeon and she is getting royaly screwed with Pension Annual Allowance contributions which means she is facing a £6k tax bill to pay in the next financial year, yet her organisation still want her to keep doing extra sessions.

the government said they were going to fix this query that sees many docs getting screwed every year, but they still haven’t yet the NHS want docs to do more and more additional work to reduce backlogs. As  in Mrs FD case this can mean they end up working for free / negative pay

Firestarter, meant it as a public servant.

I'm a project manager for network rail. I started this position 1 year before C-19. The first year I had no performance review (terrible line manager) and was listed as developing in role. We then went into pay freeze during lock down and a re-organisation. This year the Unions and NWR agreed a pay rise for my band of 4%, which I was happy with. And then I discovered that NWR has also increased the starting salary for Project Managers by 4%. So I am still on the absolute starting salary after 4 years experience and 4 years of receiving 'exceeded' performance reviews. That was a kick in the nuts.

The reality is neither the private sector nor the public sector can exist without the other and unless we make very big changes to our retirement model we can’t live into our retirements without “greedy shareholders” either.

We need better rises in the income groups who can least afford it regardless of their sector. The rest of us may need to take a little squeeze to make it happen.

Nicely said, I guess the annoyance is those that fall for and repeat the government/media "them and us" approach

NHS - blanket £1400 rise, which will work out as a different % depending on salary, but for many may not cover the recently announced rise in pension contributions.
My line manager is worse off every month after his 'pay-rise' tipped him into a higher higher pension contribution (with no increase in benefit) and owes arrears on his pay because it took so long to give us the 'April' pay rise. I don't believe the increase has been funded by central government, so needs to come out of existing budgets, although I may be wrong, but I'm also expected to find cuts as well............

NHS Scotland 5% , union balloting for strike as they want more for the lower grades which seems fair

Ah right duckman, I remember when our union asked around the other unions who was going to join us to strengthen our fight and no one but the judges bothered, luckily for all concerned we still won

@ernie

I’m a project manager for network rail. I started this position 1 year before C-19. The first year I had no performance review (terrible line manager) and was listed as developing in role. We then went into pay freeze during lock down and a re-organisation. This year the Unions and NWR agreed a pay rise for my band of 4%, which I was happy with. And then I discovered that NWR has also increased the starting salary for Project Managers by 4%. So I am still on the absolute starting salary after 4 years experience and 4 years of receiving ‘exceeded’ performance reviews. That was a kick in the nuts.

Any form of progression was removed in our organisation a few years ago. 15yr time served PM's are training new starters on our processes, everyone is on the same salary.

Tellingly, there is a memo from our brand new minister asking us which projects can be accelerated by removing blockers and bringing in external resources.

The transfer of expenditure from staff to consultants has been steady but relentless over the last decade. You soon get to know you who has the ear of the ministers. The whole programme will be privately managed soon.