On keeping one's promises

[emperor]

Why is it OK to consider changing the law to allow the government to renege on promises it made to civil servants, when we're not considering doing similar to allow us to renege on, say, PFI deals?

Comments

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Teachers, policemen, firemen, job centre workers, etc do not earn anything like the same as equivalent jobs in the private sector.

And those in the public sector tend to wildly over-estimate the earnings of those in the private!

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2009/12/more-about-public-versus-private-sector-pay/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/09/bad-science-ben-goldacre

[hooloovoo_42]

Having worked in both areas and knowing how much people in comparative jobs earn, I don't think I'm underinformed. I also deal with a wide variety of employers in my current role and know how much they pay certain workers.

I happened across one of my old payslips last night from when I bought this place in 1999. OK, I was in a completely different job role, but I was earning more than 25% more than I currently earn.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Did you read the links? As the second one, a Ben Goldacre column says: "In reality, this is one of those interesting areas where anybody who makes a firm statement is wrong, because there is not sufficient evidence to make a confident assertion in either direction."

[hooloovoo_42]

I did. I was just about to reply that apart from saying that it;s hard to say, neither of those articles actually said very much.

[hooloovoo_42]

I was also going to say that all the stuff about hourly pay and number of hours worked is valid. But in my job I can see direct comparisons between admin assistants with comparable qualifications, payroll assistants in similar sized firms, IT technicians with similar job roles and the differences between what they are paid in the public and private sectors.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

They're both saying "apples and oranges". Neither sector clearly earns more than the other, across the board. It all depends how, and what, you measure it.

Another anecdote: in the last few years, I've had two jobs, both in the private sector, where the salary, for very similar jobs, differed by 40%. Does that prove anything?