Vince Cable rubbishes regional pay idea
On BBC’s Question Time last night, Vince Cable said of the talk about regional pay:
I think imposing regional variations in pay would be completely wrong and it wouldn’t work.
Hat-tip: Tim Gatt.
UPDATE: To emphasise –
@markpack No. He put forward the case for regional pay during the programme. It's "imposition" he was rubbishing.
— Lon Won (@LonWon) March 27, 2012
Vince is wrong on this one… why should a teacher in London get more than those in the South East, but those in the South East get no more than those in the North East? We either have no regional variation or full regional variation. Why should a nurse be able to buy a house in one area of the country with 4x earnings but it'd cost 8x earnings elsewhere?
The private sector has regional pay so I don't see why the state needn't follow-suite.
Actually Tommy, the Private sector does not have regional pay. Most large national organisations have national pay scales agreed, with the only notable variation being an additional London weighting. I note the stimulus for this story was to reduce public sector pay to that of the private sector – I would rather the poorly paid private sector workers were paid more to bring them in line with the public sector
Richard Nicholas Morris I was referring more to the fact that somebody doing a certain professional job will usually get paid a different rate in different parts of the country based on the supply and demand for the job role.
I don't think the government have said whether this will mean that people in the South East get the same as now and those up North get less but we can presume that it is being done for cost reasons.
I agree, it would be lovely to pay those in the private sector more but the private sector actually has to earn its living from skills and trade. The public sector has to be based around the private sector, since it pays the bills, rather than visa versa.
. @vincecable rubbishes regional pay idea http://t.co/N7A8MeC3 via @markpack
He may rubbish regional pay idea @One_Society @vincecable @markpack but will vote with gov – Lib Dems all talk http://t.co/4Pz3tnvB via
. @vincecable rubbishes regional pay idea http://t.co/N7A8MeC3 via @markpack
@vincecable Hurray to Vince Cable for rubbishing the regional pay idea. http://t.co/g9T4YGrN #LibDems #socialliberalism #socialdemocracy
@Tommy Long Driving down wages of public sector wages in the cheaper areas of the country won't bring down housing prices in the more expensive areas, surely we should be pushing private sector wages up to public sector levels not driving public sector downwards? Many public sector workers receive state top-ups via Tax Credits anyway, clearly their wages aren't enough to live on without driving them further downwards.