Average public sector wage hits €926 as weekly earnings rise by 4% in year

AVERAGE weekly earnings for the State’s public sector workers have risen by 4%, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office.

Average earnings were €926.64 in September 2007, the latest data for which figures are available, up from €883.19 a year earlier.

Trade union IMPACT said the figures show that pay in the public sector is rising at a slower rate than in the private sector.

IMPACT spokesman Bernard Harbour said in the same month of last year, pay in the construction sector rose by 7.2% and by 13.7% in financial services.

He also criticised employers’ group ISME for claiming that workers in the public sector earn substantially more than their counterparts in private firms.

“ISME and others simply misrepresent CSO research. They compare average public sector pay with average industrial earnings, which is not comparing like with like,” said Mr Harbour.

“The CSO figures for average industrial pay are not a study of the entire private sector. Rather, they describe a small sample of relatively low-skilled manufacturing jobs.

“The public sector pay bill includes a very wide range of professions from the top to the bottom of public service organisations where staff are more qualified and more likely to be professionals, technicians or managers.”

The number of people employed in the public sector, excluding healthcare, rose to €251,100 in September 2007 from 247,600 in 2006.

The CSO said that in the year to September 2007, employment in education increased from €88,200 to €93,500 — a rise of €5,300.

Employment in commercial semi-state companies fell by 4,200 over the same period. But this reduction includes the effects of the privatisation of Aer Lingus.

Overall employment in the public sector was €363,900 in September 2007, an increase of €10,400 compared with September 2006.

Employment in the health sector increased from €105,900 in September 2006 to €112,800 in September 2007, a rise of €6,900.

The CSO said the increase includes the effect of the addition in March 2007 of certain grades and subsumed agencies into the health sector.