Given the worries that many in the private sector have over both their financial and job security, the ‘pay gap’ figures highlighted by Francis Maude could well provoke a bit of anger. Here’s how the Mail reports them:
State workers now earn an average £62 a week more than their private sector counterparts – a 50 per cent increase in the differential since 2004.
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It comes at a time when public sector employment is rising while private workers are losing their jobs at a rate of more than 1,000 a day.
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In 2004, estimated median public sector earnings – those in the middle range of pay – were £452 a week, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
Private sector median earnings were £410 a week, £42 less.
The difference remained roughly the same between 1997, when Labour came to power, and 2004. But last year the public sector level was £522, against £460 for private employees.
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