Philip Hammond – Public sector workers paid ’10 per cent premium’
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond has landed himself in hot water after he apparently claimed that public sector workers were overpaid during a recent meeting of the political cabinet. Andrew Marr challenged Hammond repeatedly over what he did in fact say, and gave the Chancellor several opportunities to deny that he had used the word ‘overpaid’:
Marr: Did you say it?
Hammond: Andrew, I’m not going to talk about what was or wasn’t said in a cabinet meeting and it’s easy to quote a phrase out of context, but I’m very happy to talk about the substantive issue. Public sector pay raced ahead of private sector pay after the crash in 2008/9. And taking public sector pay before pension contributions, that gap has now closed. Public and private sector pay on average are around about the same level. But when you take into account the very generous contributions that public sector employers have to pay in for their worker’s pensions… they are still about 10 per cent ahead.
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