Public sector workers now earn on average £86 per week more than their private sector colleagues, with the pay gap continuing to widen.
According to research by the Office for National Statistics, a typical full-time public servant is now paid £565 per week, while their private sector counterparts earn only £479, making the differential about £4,500 per annum.
The wage gap is highest at the bottom end of the scale, however, while the regions most affected by the situation are the North East of England and Northern Ireland.
The ONS figures also revealed that the gender pay gap had continued its downward trend, meanwhile, falling to below 10% for the first time since comparable records began.
The difference between men’s and women median hourly rates, excluding overtime, dropped from 10.5% to 9.6% over the last year and is down from more than 16% in 2000.
While women’s average hourly earnings grew by 2% to £12 in the year to April, men’s rose by only 1.1% to £13.27. Moreover, female part-timer workers now earn more than men. Male part-time staff are paid an average gross hourly income of £7.72, up 1% on a year ago, compared with females who received £8.12, a 1.2% rise.
Charles Cotton, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s pay and reward adviser, told the Daily Telegraph that the closing of the gap over the last year was due to higher rates of pay increases among women aged 22 to 49, while men in the same age group had fared less well.
“This could be explained by a number of factors, including women moving into more senior roles at a younger age or women in that age group being less likely to leave the workforce due to childcare commitments than they were in the past,” he said.
