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?

They get paid less than a head teacher. It's ridiculously poorly paid and one of the lowest comparative salaries in the world eg Italian MPs earn E160K, Austria E120K, Germany E108K, Netherlands E102K and so forth. But broadly within the EU MPs earn 2.5 times the average salary.

I wonder how the life expectancy post retirement compares to the life expectancy of those well paid head teachers.

Why don't you ask Mo Mowlam, Tessa Jowell, Jo Cox and John Smith?

What a nasty comment.

Head teacher salaries start at £45000 so many, many head teachers will earn far less than an MP. The massive head teacher salaries you read about in the papers are far from the norm...

Really. The HT of dd's small and shocking London compbwas on £100k+ for destroying a school. Many primary HTs are on much much more than £45k. Can you be specific about some of them on £45k please.

I can't muster an opinion.

raindrops if you Google the DfE document "School teachers’ pay and
conditions document 2017 and guidance on school teachers’ pay and
conditions" it shows the annual pay ranges for Heads. Only those in group 7 (of 8) earn over £100k and that is in inner London only. In the rest of the UK it is only the upper end of group 8 that does.

That doesn't make it right that an individual on £100k was in situe for 7 years and even then wasn't removed due to capability. That's over £1m with on costs for complete incompetence.

I don't agree with it. I think it should have been made clear at the time of the GE that there would be no pay rises for MPs this parliament.

I also think with modern technology and communications that we could have fewer MPs.

They should get far more - at least £150k in my view.

Then the best and brightest would be attracted to it, rather than going into far more lucrative city careers.

At the moment, many will only consider it if they have a private family income and don't really need the money anyway, Cameron and Johnson being the prime examples.

Pay them more and we'd have far better quality MPs.

Yes draylon but not many Employers are putting in 15% as well. Surely with the massive shortage of nursing stsff you could apply for one of the many vacancies at the grade above yours. The last couole of gr 7 sisters I've come across have not exactly been 3 A'Level, London teaching hospital degree nursing calibre.

My understanding too is thst there are some very generous double time shift allowances we hear very little about that supplement £35k salaries across the country where London's average wage of £26k pa starts looking v atttactive.

Raindrops - i think you're lucky. My experience in the public sector is very different. I've been on the top of my band for several years so no annual increment, no cost of living increase, and no possibilty of promotion as the better paid roles are all being downgraded whenever anyone leaves. Yes i get decent sick pay if needed, and reasonable job security, but my pension has been changed and the private sector is looking more appealing.

MPs should not be getting any higher rises than the rest of the public sector - completely unjustifiable. And every other sector is being 'modernised' to be 'fit for purpose' ie redundancies and 'streamlining', more management, less staff doing more work, insane misapplied targets etc. The house of commons has black rod, pomp and ceremony, refit of buildings which will cost a fortune and benefit no one else etc. Pisses me right off!!

£70,000 puts you in the top 6% of earnings. I can't feel they're particularly hard done by (even if one accepts the theory that one's salary is a measure of one's ability) But as others have said, it's not so much the salary, it's all the additional benefits.

I'd by happier if a lot of the associated stuff were changed. Secretarial and support staff to be employed by Parliament and appointed fairly and transparently. An allowance to stay within commuting distance of London, renting if necessary, not help with buying a second house. Don't subsidise bars within the Parliament buildings. MPs to be on a 5-year contract - no severance pay if they get kicked out. Reform of pension arrangements - accrual of benefits to be at same rate as others in public service. Maybe even move away from final salary scheme now the rest of us no longer have these.

Used to work for an MP about 5 years ago now, agree with mere about there needs to be reform on who’s hired by the mp.
I personally don’t think they need a pay rise, also argument about attracting the brightest, they tend to have good careers afterwards due to contacts etc they’ve made but I also don’t believe that increasing the pay would necessarily attract the “best” (and do we even want that? And what classified as best? Oxbridge grads? Think cross section of society would probably be the best rather then lots of middle class grads parachuting into safe seats they have no connection too )

Raindrops, you must be one of the very few people in the public sector who thinks they're lucky. I assume you're a civil servant which in no way compares with front line NHS jobs in either responsibility or stress. There's no need for nasty and unfounded comments about nurse managers either.

What nasty and unfounded comment about nurse managers? I have made a statement of fact having come across two sisters who were absolutely not of the appropriate calibre. Both recently. One at St Georges and one at ESTH. It is an indictment of the state of the NHS. Happy to pay people more, but not for somebof the standards presently being delivered.

I'm not a civil servant btw.

Raising the salary of MPs wouldn't necessarily encourage the best and the brightest to the job. I wouldn't want to be an MP even if they did pay over £100k. I don't want to be hated and slagged off just because I belong to a particular party, or for my position on Brexit or whatever.

What greathat said.

Each mp shou!d donate that rise to their local elderly care precept fund.

Those nurses are registered and qualified for their jobs. What specialist knowledge do you have to judge their calibre? That's their employers' job, not some random with an opinion.

So if you're not a civil servant, what do you do?

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!

I’m a private sector worker.

I’ve had no pay rise... incremental (no such thing as incremental increases) or cost of living... for 6 out of the last 8 years. The other 2 years have been 1% and 2%

I get statutory sick pay.

Statutory redundancy.

Statutory holiday.

Statutory maternity.

6% employers pension contribution.

I still don’t begrudge MPs getting 1%. It’s not a race to the bottom...

Oh... and I’m far from a minimum wage worker.

Tbh i wouldn't do it for all the tea in China. Would need to be a good wage to tempt women into the role as it means a lot of time away from home.

Would i be right in thinking that they need to hire their own admin help out of that wage too, or have i got that wrong?

I am a "junior" doctor. I did 6 years at Cambridge. I am eight years post qualification. I would be on about 45k if I were full time. Jeremy Hunt basically gave me a pay cut.

I agree that we need to pay people properly to attract the best and the brightest into important jobs. But that isn't just mps, that is teachers, doctors, midwives nurses etc . So if it isn't happening in those professions I fail to see why it is so important for politicians.