The TUC, and its Unions issue constant calls for higher pay & ‘improved working conditions’ for their members, I struggle to see how working conditions or pay can be improved within the public sector.
If we look at the facts:
- Public Sector workers are paid on average 7.7% to 8.7% more than their counterparts in the private sector
- Gross median pay in the public sector is £28,802 compared to £25,000 in the private sector
- The bottom 5% of public sector workers are paid £6.91 per hour on average, compared to an average of £5.93 per hour in the private sector
- The average public sector worker earns £14.88 per hour, compared to the typical private sector workers who earns £11.60 per hour
- Average public sector worker works 31 hours & 12 minutes per weeks, compared to the typical private sector worker who puts in 34 hours & 18 minutes per week
- 80% of public sector workers receive more than 25 days annual leave per year, compared to 55% of private sector workers
Does that sound fair? Does that sound as though public sector workers are being unfairly treated?
Lets also look at public sector pensions, compared to private sector pensions:
- There are around 23 million workers in the UK’s private sector, only 10% of these contribute towards their workplace pension To cover all points there are around 6.4million paying into a personal pension, this is the only option for the self employed)
- There are around 6million workers in the UK’s public sector, around 5.3million of them contribute to a workplace pension
- Using a mean average the average public sector worker will receive a pension of £7,800 per year, compared to £7,467 per year for a private sector salary linked pension
- Actual average sees a public sector worker receive a pension of £7,000 per year, and private sector workers receive £3,700 per annum, meaning on average a public sector worker will receive nearly double the pension of a private sector worker
- There are 78,000 currently retired public sector workers receiving a pension in excess of £25,900 per annum
Further to the above points, just remember the UK has a £1.2TRILLION liability for public sector pensions, or £45,000 per household.
So I ask you to please consider the above points when listening to the TUC & the Unions rant that their members need more pay & better conditions. The pay, pensions & working conditions for the public sector are already much, much better than those of private sector workers.
When considering the points it becomes clear the Unions & the TUC are about greed & nothing else, this is very true considering their recent actions when Ed Balls MP was booed and faced with jeers of “rubbish” when telling the TUC that jobs are more important than pay, and that Labour would also be cutting spending.
garethbaines 