Why does everyone say that the civil service is low-paid?

[YourPoisedFinch]

friend in big 4 audit-- 32k to 50k in 3 years
friend in civil service, as a statistician --- 33k to 55k in 3 years on fast stream

Because you’re basing it on a sample size of 2.

The majority of the civil service are lower grades - AA to EO - and don't earn that much.

It's not complicated.

Because the same people can usually earn much more in a similar job in the private sector.

After 3 years in another (non fast stream) civil service our graduate trainees would be on about £36k. If they've been exceptional and managed to qualify and move up to the next grade, they'd be on about £42k, which they could get stuck at for years.

The admin team will need a pay rise in a few weeks to bring their salary up to NMW.

Depends on your field. If you’re a lawyer or a web developer for example you’ll be poorly paid in the civil service compared to the private sector. But in some less specialised fields (including mine) the public sector pays better.

And this. Employees of the civil service and other public sector jobs are disproportionately well qualified compared with the workforce as a whole.

Most civil servants are low grades. They get paid about the level of the National minimum wage. Many take second jobs just to get by.

The fast stream is the equivalent of a graduate trainee programme. Many people don’t progress much further than that in terms of pay grade. In the private sector qualified people can expect much higher wages.

a g7 in london is on 65k

G7 is a really high grade!

As many pp have pointed out. The majority of civil servants are AA AO and EO. Which is low paid.

It's not that difficult to understand

Statistician is not a representative job for the Civil Service as a whole. Statisticians are in huge demand in the CS and they lose loads of them every year to the private sector, so they had to start paying them more than other roles.

Also on MN anything below about £80k is considered low paid

My DH is a chartered surveyor, he is on treble what he was getting in the civil service. They have real trouble in retaining chartered surveyors as they get poached by private practices as soon as they qualify.

Other commenters have made good points but it's also because staff have taken a real terms pay cut for the last 15 years, with wages not keeping pace with inflation. There are of course loads of people on low wages in the private sector too, but their wage growth overall has kept pace better than the Civil Service.

And re: mention of fast streamers - there's very few of them in general, most of us don't do the FS and the acceptance rate to get into it is 2.2%. Most departments are also on headcount reductions due to Spending Review and are modelling further cuts, meaning people aren't replaced when they leave, and more people are competing for fewer higher grade posts due to pressures on living standards.

I am a Grade 7. I jumped through hoops to get where I am: 4 years of exams. I started as an AO. I earn more than £65k but my dept pays well. Quite a few of my colleagues complete the training and move over to the private sector as it pays a lot more.

Same for just about all professionals. The civil service puts in the legwork training people and paying for qualifications. Then the private sector gets the benefits without the cost.

OP, here is a distribution by grade. Note that there is G7 upper and lower and it's only G7 uppers that are on £65k and that's in inner London so includes weighting. The national rate for G7 lowers, which are probably the majority, is more like £54k.

Oh, and I used to have a second job as well. Like lower paid colleagues do now.

Civil service also has a ceiling- the statistician will never be on more than about £120k whereas a partner in a big four firm can easily make seven figures.

OP will be complaining about our ‘gold plated’ pensions next. God forbid that anyone in the public sector deserves anything other than to live on bread and water and live under a railway bridge.

When I started G7s were in about £42K. That was in 2002. If wages had kept up with inflation that would be around £76k now.

Because a statistician in the private sector would earn a fuck of a lot more than £55k.

a g7 in london is on 65k

No they're not. £55k and no annual increment.

The problem with public sector salaries is primarily at the top end where they are woefully uncompetitive.

I worked for a regulatory organisation in the public sector and pretty much hit a ceiling at about 60k. I then moved over to the private sector of the industry the regulator covered and now earn 200k doing effectively the opposite side of the work that I did at the regulator.

I’m by no means alone with this. I know a lot of people who were on around 50k at the regulator that all now earn well over 100k in the private sector. It makes for a strange dynamic as inevitably the private sector drains all the talent from the regulator. I earn more than the regulator’s CEO but am nowhere near CEO level in the private sector.

depends on the department

wages keep up with inflation

wages keep up with inflation

But not with market rates for the required skillset. It's a great employer, and the FS is a great scheme for the right person, but don't kid yourself it's the route to a really well paid job.