Public servants’ wages rise twice as fast as other sectors

PUBLIC sector salaries are rising twice as fast as wages in both the industry and the financial sectors, it emerged yesterday.

The 9.5% hike last year for public servants was also five times higher than earnings’ increases in the construction industry, according to new official figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The rapid growth in public sector wages was in line with benchmarking pay awards agreed by the social partners three years ago. The CSO figures further revealed the current level of 345,000 public service jobs was 9,000 more than the cap on public sector employment imposed by former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy in December 2002. A further 4,500 were recruited to the public sector last year.