It’s tempting fate to get into this particular subject again, but I cannot pass by an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies of public sector pay, which formed part of its Budget documentation.

 It concludes that there is a small difference in favour of the public sector when all confounding factors are taken into account. It amounts to 2 per cent for men, 7 per cent for women, 5 per cent overall. These differences are small, and the authors, Antione Bozio and Paul Johnson, conclude: “Overall, pay levels in the public sector are probably not significantly out of line with those of similar workers in the private sector, once you take into account factors such as their age, education and qualifications.”
 
However, they do add an interesting regional breakdown (differentials are negative in London and the South East, while elsewhere men in the public sector have a 5 per cent gap over their private counterparts, and women one of 11-13 per cent). They add that public sector workers have fared better in the recession, and that the “big anomaly” remains the pension provision enjoyed by public sector workers. That adds another 12 per cent to the differential, they say, citing previous work by IFS that I have referred to before. Well worth a read.