Public Sector Pay Raises in the UK – Bridging the Cost-of-Living Gap

The United Kingdom has accepted recommendations for pay increases for public sector workers, including doctors and teachers, in an attempt to end strikes triggered by a cost-of-living crisis.

Treasury Chief Secretary John Glen said on Thursday that doctors and teachers would receive at least 6 percent increases, while police and armed forces will receive 7 percent and 5 percent respectively.

Junior doctors will also receive a 1,250 pound lump-sum pay increase. To fund the pay rises, the government will not borrow or spend additional money, but instead will reallocate funds from the existing education department budget.

Unfortunately, the pay increases are still below the current 8.7 percent inflation rate. The development comes as thousands of junior doctors in England commenced their latest walkout, the longest-ever strike in Britain's state-funded healthcare service.

The British Medical Association (BMA), the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35 percent pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account.

The BMA leaders, Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, urged the government to drop its “nonsensical precondition” of not talking while strikes are announced. Arjan Singh, a junior doctor on a picket line outside London’s University College Hospital, said his colleagues were planning to leave the country for places where doctors are better appreciated.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the junior doctors’ five-day walkout “will have an impact on thousands of patients, put patient safety at risk and hamper efforts to cut NHS waiting lists”. He added that a pay demand of 35 percent or more “is unreasonable and risks fuelling inflation, which makes everyone poorer”.

Britain is currently grappling with high inflation for the first time in years, having been initially stoked by supply chain issues from the pandemic and then from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Though the inflation rate has come down slightly, it remains far above the Bank of England’s target.

The government’s offer has angered trade unions who have said school and hospital budgets cannot bear the cost of wage increases without cutting spending. Despite this, the government is hoping that the pay increases will end strikes and help to bridge the gap created by falling real wages.