Five myths about public sector pay

There has been a great deal of comment in the past few months about public sector pay, some of it ill informed and much of it missing the point. Peter Smith, director of public sector consulting at Hay Group, looks at five myths that seem to have developed and comments on the real issues in each case.
 

Myth one: The public sector is overpaid
This belief is based on a recent ONS figures showing that public sector pay is rising faster than in the private sector - and that the overall average salary is higher in the public sector.

Reality: These figures do not tell us whether the public sector pays more when we look beyond salary to the whole package. They also fail to take into account job size, content and type.

The public and private sectors alike are effectively a multiplicity of job markets - comparing an overall 'average' figure is not a reliable yardstick. We also need to remember that many lower level jobs in the public sector have been outsourced to the private sector, distorting the average salary in each.