Public servants earn less and face greater job insecurity than private sector workers

Commenting on figures published today (Monday) by the Office for National Statistics on the differences between public and private sector pay, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Years of freezes, real terms pay cuts and rounds of redundancies have left public servants facing a sharp squeeze in their living standards.

“Not only do public sector workers earn less than equivalent staff in the private sector, they also face greater job insecurity as hundreds of thousands of posts are set to go in the coming years.

“Top earners in the private sector enjoy a huge wage premium over the public sector but the lowest paid do even worse than their public sector counterparts. If private businesses paid their lowest paid staff more fairly we’d make huge inroads into reducing in-work poverty.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The ONS figures are available at www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/public-and-private-sector-earnings/march-2014/rpt---march-2014.html

- The TUC is organising Fair Pay Fortnight from Monday 24 March to Sunday 6 April. It will be a series of events across England and Wales to raise awareness about falling living standards. www.fairpayfortnight.org

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

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