Pay. It's such a sensitive subject. In most workplaces, the public sector included, salary levels are regarded as a delicate, private matter, particularly when it comes to the highest levels of reward.
Not any more. In the spirit of extending transparency, the government has published the salaries of 172 civil servants earning more than £150,000, and plans to lower that threshold to £58,000 later in the year.
The coalition government says it wants to rip off ‘the cloak of secrecy’ surrounding public sector pay. Prime Minister David Cameron has written to all departments announcing a new Cabinet Office public sector transparency board.
Name and shame headlines about civil service ‘snouts in the trough’ duly followed.
And quite right too, many would say. In these stricken times, with public services at a critical turning point, why should the top echelons be earning vast six-figure sums?
Personal remuneration has become a hugely political issue, as the government and its recently departed chief secretary to the Treasury have been reminded to their cost.
If the coalition is to have any chance of securing a consensus for its deficit-cutting Budget on June 22, it needs to be calling for belt-tightening from the top down.
So, Business Secretary Vince Cable has urged Whitehall mandarins to show ‘more discipline’, and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has vetoed a proposed salary of £240,000 for the head of the Audit Commission. MPs are taking a 5% pay cut and (allegedly) walking to work.
But why stop there? Shouldn’t transparency extend to salaries and bonuses in state-supported banks, the senior managers of outsourcing and private finance companies – and other private sector beneficiaries of taxpayer support?
And why isn’t a penetrating light being shone on the much higher value of the private sector packages that have helped distort senior salaries in the public sector?
As participants noted at PF’s recent round table (see pages 16–20), many low-paid public servants are being asked to make enormous sacrifices to help pay down a deficit caused by market failures.
CIPFA delegates will hear still more next week in Harrogate, as they stare into the abyss of 25% departmental savings – and contemplate making the deepest cuts to services for decades.
So, certainly, let’s be open and transparent about over-the-top salaries and perks. But let’s also be fair and honest about the relative levels of reward.
As someone once said, don’t get mad – get even.
Judy Hirst is the deputy editor of Public Finance
