“It is more government that got us into this mess!” David Cameron declared in last week’s speech, to cheers from the conference. No, it was not. Only a lot more government and mountains more taxpayers’ cash got us out of a mess caused by runaway financiers.
Polly, on form.
And the arguments on pay aren’t just good rhetoric – they’re reasoned, and right.
7 Responses to “Say it again, say it often: the public sector is paid less”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Er, no…they’re wrong. Median pay in the public sector is higher than in the private sector. That is a fact.
Peter
It’s fact that BMWs cost more on average than Fords
Both are cars
They are not the same
Public sector workers are paid more as they do higher qualified work, on average, for which they are paid less than the public sector on average
That’s an argument
You delivered dogmatic nonsense. Please try to engage your brain next time
Richard
You don’t make an argument Richard, you simply state a hypothesis. If you intend to argue it then at least advance some justification for the hypothesis
I can’t understand how this idea that the public sector pays more has gained any traction whatsoever.
Anyone who has ever looked for a job has compared salaries in private sector with those in the public sector and seen that they would get paid more in the private sector.
It most be those who are either too rich or too old to work that must be giving this idea any credence.
Alastair
Polly delivered the argument
Coleman supported it
And I contended, I did not hypothesise
Richard
Its a long article, but its still only a hypothesis – actually that is being kind, as its more in the nature of a rant. And worse still, it misses the point; Cameron’s argument is that there is too much state. Too much quangocracy. Too much centralisation. Too much nannyism. The argument is not about the quality of individuals employed in the public sector – its a structural argument.
There are regional differences in the comparative pay between public and private sector. I can’t begin to imagine how anyone in the public sector manages to live in London. However, when you move into the less prosperous parts of the country where property prices are significantly less (though still too high IMO), public sector wages become much more competitive. I know, because I have always worked in the private sector and my wife was in local government.
This is not a simple matter…