Public sector pay growth has jumped 9.6 per cent, the fastest rate since current records began 22 years ago. Private sector wage growth, meanwhile, is slightly more modest at 7.9 per cent. The NHS bonus – a one-off payment of between £1,650 and £3,500 given in June – helped lift overall wages up by 8.2 per cent, higher than inflation (at 7.9 per cent), the first time that has happened since March last year.
That bonus was agreed by the government in an attempt to put an end to industrial action among health workers. Around 160,000 working days were lost in June alone, the majority in the NHS. But with the bonus and the sheer size of the NHS payroll (at 1.4 million, it’s the largest workforce in Europe) overall national pay figures have been pushed up.
There is more to those wage figures than the NHS effect, however.
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