Gap between public and private sector pay widens to 8%

AN EIGHT per cent gap between the pay of private sector workers and equivalent jobs in the public sector has been revealed by new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

For the first time, the ONS compared workers who do the same job, are the same age and sex, and live in the same region. They found the difference in pay was an average of 7.8 per cent in April 2010, widening from 5.3 per cent in 2007 before the recession.

The analysis, drawn from two pieces of research about pay and the UK workforce, does not include other forms of remuneration, such as pension contributions, company cars and health insurance. Experts say these could add a further 25 to 30 per cent to public sector workers' earnings, the paper reports.

The findings come just days after hundreds of thousands of teachers, lecturers, civil servants and other workers walked out in protest against changes to their pensions.

The ONS said there was a higher proportion of higher-skilled jobs in the public sector, and the gap had widened over the past decade as lower-skilled jobs had been outsourced to the private sector. Another factor is that the state sector contains a higher proportion of older employees, whose earnings have increased over time.

Higher levels of education in the public sector were also likely to account for some of the difference. In 2010, some 38 per cent of workers had a degree or equivalent qualification in the public sector, compared with 23 per cent in the private sector. When employees with a degree are compared, those in the public sector earned about 5.7 per cent less than those in the private sector.

Last year it was revealed that more than 38,000 government workers were paid over 100,000, and 9,187 earn more than the Prime Minister (142,500).

The research excluded the self-employed.