To ask your opinion on MP's receiving a 1% pay rise...

[Monkeyandbananas]

Just that really. Anyone care to share their thoughts on the 1.8% pay rise?

It's far more than they deserve.

If you don't keep up with the times who is going to be interetsed in becoming politicians in the future? For what it's worth, I wouldn't be interested in doing their job for that pay, the pay is far too small for that ammount of intrusion and scrutiny into your life. All the people who say they should be on minumum wage are idiots as well.

MPs get a bloody decent salary and loads of additional allowances. They’re hardly on the breadline.

In addition, if they’re a cabinet member they get even more.

However I think we’ll should all be saying why can’t everyone get a decent pay rise. How have we got to the position where we are too distracted by each other’s payrises to ask the bigger question.

Agree Biker

I think you're right believeitornot. Why are we no longer valuing our worth?

I think it's good that they aren't responsible for setting their own pay. There would be a clear conflict of interest if they did. So when an independent organisation recommends what the level should be I think it's right for them to implement it.

That's more like a 2% rise.

1.8% meh can’t get worked up.

When the bastards gave themselves 10% in the middle of ‘Austerity’ I was more disgusted.

It's a larger increase than many public sector workers receive at the moment, which makes me a bit

Last time I looked into the parliamentary pay situation though the regulatory body was recommending a sizeable increase in salary to bring it into line with what most European politicians earn, and to reduce the amount claimed in expenses, which sounds vaguely sensible.

Still rankles though.

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. DH wanted to be an MP. By the time he might have got a winnable seat, his earnings had overtaken those of an MP and he'd have needed a London base and a home in the constituency. By then he had two dc as well. This won't be a popular view but if the brightest are to be attracted the reward has to increase.

I think a lot if not most of them could earn more than they do in others ways and a lot of them do the job because they do care and they do try and make a difference. Obviously not everyone will agree!

It’s not that much is it anyway? What do they get £70k ish! My brother, a plumber, earns more than that fitting bathrooms.

I think they've got a real nerve capping public sector pay increases at 1% but nearly double that for themselves. I can't really catch my breath at the gall of it!

What about other bodies that have increased in pay independently recommended, which is then ignored by the government? If others who's pay is funded by tax payer have it frozen, then they should too.

You took the words out of my mouth, greathat.

My pay is frozen, has been for ages. How come MPs get a pay rise? Fair enough if they unfreeze NHS pay rises. Otherwise 🖕

A lot of people in the public sector get increments annually as well as cost of living increases though. It's pretty good on the whole. I went back to work in 2003 on S3. Over 9 years worked my way to S02 and subsequently have worked my way through higher grades. It's not hard to slither up the public sector pole.

We have to pay MPs well, or we will only get (even bigger) muppets doing the job.

BUT I wish there were some way of tying it to merit. So say an MP who doesn't bother attending parliament or who gets poor approval ratings from his constituents doesn't get his/her top whack or something like that. Not that the buggers would ever vote for it!

I agree with PistFump. What MPs earn really isn’t peanuts compared to most of the population. Other public sector workers earn much less than they do and they’re just as important. It must be intensely grating for teachers/nurses etc to be told their pay will be frozen and then have to watch as MPs give themselves a raise.

Surely we should be trying to attract the best to most public service professions? Not just MPS? I think teachers, doctors and social workers should all be made more attractive to the biggest and the brightest. But the pay is shocking in public sectors.

There are people at the top of their NHS band who have had pay rises below inflation for almost eight years now. Whose job is more important - people saving lives or people pontificating in Parliament?

raindrops thats frankly just not the reality any more. Most public sector workers are earning the same now as they were earning 10 years ago. I've recently gone "up a grade" in my role. Its and extra £20 quid a month.

Since 2010 and "austerity" MP's pay has risen by almost £12K or 17.7%

Definitely not "all in it together"

MPs pay should have been frozen for as long as the public sector pay

They have absolutely no understanding of the struggles of ordinary people. As PP said, definitely not “all in this together”

And next year Batman you'll get another increment.

I get six weeks' holiday, 4 x salary of free life insurance, 15% employer's contribution into my pension, 6 months full and 6 months half sick pay, good L&D and much more flexibility than i had in the private sector. All of that has a huge value. Oh, and I have unions for my back and I'd have to be more than incompetent to be dismissed without a generous package!

You have to compare MPs with Accountants, lawyers, Directors of public companies, etc., not those on average salaries.