Public Sector Pay in 2020/2021

Wednesday 12th May 2021

TIME: 14:00 – 16:30

Last autumn, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced a pay freeze for the public sector in

2021/22, with an exemption for NHS staff. The Government has proposed a 1% rise for NHS staff. Meanwhile

the Scottish Government has offered pay rises of 4% to NHS staff in Scotland. All this follows a decade of pay

controls on the public sector: a pay freeze from 2010, then a 1% limit from 2013/14 to 2017/18. From 2018

to 2020 this policy was relaxed.

The stated rationale for the Chancellor’s reimposition of severe pay restraint was the impact of the

pandemic on official figures for earnings growth, which went negative in the private sector last summer as

hours worked fell and a large number of workers were placed on furlough, in many cases on 80% of pay. But

since then earnings growth has recovered.

Our panel of experts will discuss what is happening to pay across the public sector. It will also focus on

Government and employer policies and trade union responses. It will also look at different methods of pay

determination across the public sector including the Pay Review Bodies. Other issues include comparisons of

public and private sector pay, and a focus on the gender pay gap, the ethnicity pay gap, and the future of pay

progression. The impact of the pandemic on the labour market will also be considered, especially in the

context of recruitment and retention across the public sector.

Our speakers:

Ken Mulkearn, Director, Incomes Data Research - ‘Freezes for some but not all: the outlook for pay in the

public and private sectors in 2021’.

Nicola Allison, Remuneration Adviser, Office for Manpower Economics – ‘Recruitment, retention and the

public sector pay pause’.

David Powell, Head of Salaries, National Education Union – ‘Teacher Pay - the impact of Government policy

in the 2010s and prospects for the 2020s’.

Garry Graham, Deputy General Secretary, Prospect (union) – ‘After a decade of pay austerity in the public

sector and the government’s announcement of a pay “pause”- what is the UK governments “strategy” on pay

and reward and the challenge for unions?’