Benchmarking: is it an error or just a charade?

WE are told that one of the principal reasons why the benchmarking body recommended no pay increase to most public service workers in its review published last week was that it took into account the pension arrangements of these workers.

The benchmarking body applied a discount of 12% of salary to take account of the superior value of these pensions, saying that pension arrangements in the public service were “significantly more valuable” than those in the private sector.

However, in 2002 the then benchmarking body had already taken public service pensions into account and this was one of the reasons why it decided to limit its recommended pay increases at that time.