Fwd: [LA-F] Public sector workers earn £4,000 a year pay premium compared to private staff

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Public sector workers earn £4,000 a year pay premium compared to private staff

By Becky Barrow

Last updated at 7:49 AM on 24th November 2011

The average public sector worker earns nearly £4,000 a year more than a typical private sector worker, official figures revealed yesterday.

The figures emerged days before state workers hold what union leaders hope will be the biggest strikes for a generation.

The Office for National Statistics said the average public sector worker, who works full-time, is paid an annual salary of £28,802.

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Well paid: The average public sector worker, including teachers, nurses and civil servants, earns nearly £4,000 a year more than a private sector worker

By comparison, the average full-time worker in the private sector receives a salary of only £25,000, a gap of £3,802.

This could cover the cost of a two-week foreign holiday for a family of four, or nearly 40 trips to the supermarket spending an average of £100 on each visit.

Teachers, NHS staff, civil servants and many more of Britain's six million state workers will walk out next Wednesday in a row over changes to their gold-plated pensions.
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Divorce from reality: Matthew Sinclair said the figures showed there was no justification for upcoming strikes

Matthew Sinclair, director of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: 'This is yet more evidence that the justifications for disruptive public sector strikes are divorced from the economic reality faced by ordinary workers.

'For years, private sector workers have struggled to pay ever higher taxes with meagre raises, while public sector workers have enjoyed inflation-busting pay hikes.

'These figures disprove the spin from union bosses that the generous pension deals found in the public sector are somehow compensation for lower pay than the private sector.'

The majority of private sector workers do not get a pension from their boss. If they do have a pension, the average pension pot they will have built up is only £26,000, which is equal to a retirement income of around £1,400 a year.

The average annual pension in the public sector is worth £7,841, according to a report, commissioned by the Government and produced by former Labour minister Lord Hutton.

Millions of cash-strapped families are being forced to 'simply go without' as they struggle to make ends meet, a Bank of England report warned yesterday.

The study highlighted the problems facing workers trying to survive austerity Britain with poor pay rises, tax increases, soaring household bills and benefit cuts.

It said families are 'budgeting ever more keenly', trading down to cheaper shops, taking 'fewer, shorter holidays', and 'shopping around for the cheapest deals on hotels and restaurants'.

These include delaying buying big items, such as a new dishwasher, until a 'replacement becomes unavoidable'.

The number using public transport has increased because people can no longer afford to use their car due to the high price of petrol and diesel.

Meanwhile, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that over the last year, workers' average weekly earnings have risen by only 0.4 per cent, while bosses' pay has gone up by 10 per cent.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065479/Public-sector-workers-earn-4-000-year-pay-premium-compared-private-staff.html#ixzz1ec7j52Z9

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