Pay 'Apartheid' Between Public and Private Sector Workers Grows By 50%

The pay gap between the public and private sectors has widened dramatically in just four years, official figures show.


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.


Critics say it is fresh evidence of a developing apartheid between the two groups.
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.


There is also growing anger that many pensions in the private sector are being closed, but taxpayer-funded state pensions remain seemingly untouched by the financial crisis.


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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