Average public sector pay in UK is £23.6 k a year - ours is € 48k a year !

Dudess wrote: »

@meditraitor: what's invalid about saying they get paid 20k when they get paid 20k?

gigino wrote: »

Average public sector pay in our nearest neighbour, a G7 nation ( one of the worlds main economies and one which is helping to finance our IMF package ) is £ 23600 per year - about € 26k. in euro. They are even complaining that that level of public sector pay is too high over there !
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7036131/Record-gap-between-public-and-private-sector-pay.html

Average public sector pay here, after pay cuts, is still high - not far off double, at € 48,000 a year, according to the governments own central statistics office, who should know.

http://www.cso.ie/statistics/public_sector_earnings.htm

As many things are cheaper in this country, and with no residental property tax, cheaper petrol/diesel etc, and cheaper new property prices ( new 2 bedroom apartments can now ne bought in parts of Ireland for less than one years average public sector wage )...what will happen ? Will Heinz the cop in Berlin and Harry the cop in Birmingham continue to subsidise Hector the Guard in Ballyhaunis ?

Bosco boy wrote: »

I don't know what you work at but I'd safely say you are overpaid if you work in this country in any sector, look in the mirror mate your probally as big a part of the problem than any public sector worker, but of course you won't have the balls to tell us your real occupation.

Tazio wrote: »

I work for a US multinational...aka private sector.

I have targets to meet. If my position does NOT contribute to profits I'm unemployed. The end.

I have to prove myself to get a pay rise (if any).

My weekly hours of work depend on workload. (No overtime).

I don't have a national union batting for me.

In the last 6 years my department has fallen from 9 to 3. Guess who picked up the workload.

This is typical of private sector positions (in my circle of friends and family).

I'm not.complaining.. stuff happens. I'm prepared to work on for my families sake etc... But it makes me sick to be faced with more tax rises to pay for certain people on a jolly in state positions. I have cousins and one in law relative working in HSE cork and.to here them rant on about entitlements and tea breaks while boasting about watching the Late Late show on RTE realplayer while supposed to be processing patients data just make me want to puke.

If some.or all of my tax is paying their easy lifestyle then yes I would question state salaries and rates (as a voter)...

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

:D Draining the country dry, how is that?

Next in their sights, are they bringing in snipers?
would a few public executions for those nasty dirty public servants cheer you up?

RobbieTheRobber wrote: »

Are they engineers too, otherwise why would you expect them to do your job?

Bosco boy wrote: »

Is that private sector speculation again!!!

mariaalice wrote: »

By the way I do think people have a point sometimes about the public services, but they do themselves no favours when their post is make up of lazy generalizations, hear say, and things they have read in the daily mail or the independent.

By the way do you know what befit in kind is.

Oafley Jones wrote: »

I've a serious problem with the likes of mediatrator and gigino The arguments put forward are in my mind no different that what fueled the exuberance of the celtic tiger in the first place i.e. Lazy, irrational emotional reactions based on figures/data without proper context. There's no critical analysis, no logic, no sense just frothing and general soap boxing. It's anti-thought and completely worthless.

mariaalice wrote: »

I have a fantastic idea what about a forum for all the people with a fetish about the public service, with added sub forums for the people that start their posts with something like ' my friends cousin step brothers is in the ESB and he has ten washing machines and he's doing all his extended families washing because he gets free electricity and he's paid 150k a year with ten weeks holiday and that a fact' It would sure improve the Irish economy forum if the ' I am obsessed with the public services and believe everything I read in the daily mail' type of thread were removed to their own forum.

Public sector workers have received more than €1bn in incremental pay increases since Ireland's worst ever recession began in 2007, despite the dire state of the public finances.

Figures released by the Department of Finance show that although the country has had to borrow roughly €20bn a year to run the State since 2008, length-of-service pay increases have continued across all departments, agencies and organisations in the public sector.

The perception of a pay freeze and the pension levy hitting public sector workers stands in stark contrast to the reality of State employees in permanent, pensionable jobs. They are still seeing their gross salaries increase because the Government is allowing them to receive increased pay purely on the basis of time served.

Jim Power, chief economist with Friends First, said: "It's a disgrace -- given that the private sector has borne the brunt of the recession in terms of pay cuts and, more importantly, job losses -- that these top-up payments have continued. It's nuts when you see the meltdown in the public finances, and hopefully the new Government will deal with this issue. It shows clearly how the unions have been running this country for the past 10 years and still are."

The public sector pay bill in 2010 was €15.1bn, and new figures released last week showed that state employees earn one-third more than their private sector counterparts.

According to a new Central Statistics Office report on wages, weekly earnings in the public sector rose from a three-year low of €882 a week in the first quarter of 2010 to €913 in the final quarter. In contrast, in the final quarter of 2010, weekly earnings in the private sector were almost a third lower at €625.

Ireland's public sector pay structure is substantially higher than most other European countries and, on average, one-third higher than public sector workers in Britain. Latest comparable figures show that average British public service weekly earnings were €634 compared with the €913 paid to State employees here.

Some civil servants at the top of their respective pay scales are getting wage rises of €2,400 for long service. The previous government shied away from further angering public sector workers already reeling from pension and income levy increases.

A sample survey across a range of departments shows an average payout of €2,345 for the civil servants entitled to the long-service payments. The pay scales in the public sector see most workers go up the scale each year, meaning their gross salary increases on an annual basis.

Former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan repeatedly refused to impose a freeze on such incremental payments, on the grounds that it would impact on lower grade workers unfairly.

A spokesman from the Department of Finance explained: "Suspending increments would have an uneven impact and would disproportionately affect lower-paid staff. Higher-paid public service grades have, in general, significantly shorter incremental scales than lower-paid staff and, consequently, more of them are at the maximum of scales. Some higher-paid grades do not have incremental scales at all and their salaries are single points."

It must also be remembered that cuts of up to 14 per cent have been inflicted upon public sector workers, the spokesman added.

Before entering office, several Fine Gael ministers. including Leo Varadkar and Richard Bruton, called on the incremental pay increases to be frozen as long as the country remains in recession. A Fine Gael source said last night that the views of the party had not changed.

Given the arrival of the IMF last November and the change of government, new Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin is set to come under significant pressure to end the practice as part of any reform process.

The Department of Finance confirmed €250m was spent on salary increments in the public sector last year.