An 8% increase for the chief executive but nothing for everyone else
Suffolk County Council has awarded its chief executive a salary increase of £13,450, taking her salary to £170,000 a year. The decision was made to reflect her “hard work in serving the residents of Suffolk” according to a spokeperson quoted in the East Anglian Daily Times
While it is undoubtedly true that chief executives of councils should be properly rewarded it does beg the old trade union question “What about the workers?” After all, without the staff to carry out the day to day work of providing high quality public services, those at the top (however good they may be) will achieve nothing.
It has become all too common for senior executives in the private sector to give themselves massive pay rises while many in their workforce struggle to make ends meet on the minimum wage. The spread of a culture into the public sector that rewards those at the top while allowing the wages of workers to stagnant will be seen as unfair and devisive.
Public service workers have had little or no pay increases for several years. Morale is already low at a time when staff goodwill and a willingness to go the extra mile for no reward are the only things stopping our public services from collapsing.
It would be nice to think that councillors and other employers understood that in our next round of pay claims.