Public wages depend on private sector

The call by trade union leaders for increases in wages for public sector workers privileges the secure at the expense of the insecure.

The presumption that public sector workers would spend the increase to raise all boats is holed below the water, given the resulting, increased costs to individual, private sector companies. Companies that are predominantly export orientated would reap no benefit.

Public-sector trade unions seem to forget that all public sector wages and spending have first to be generated from private-sector, taxed income or profits.