Pay in the Public Sector

191 Pages·1981·15.818 MB·English

by  R. F. Elliott, J. L. Fallick (auth.)

PAY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
PAY IN THE
PUBLIC SECTOR
R. F. Elliott
and
J. L. Fallick
© R. F. Elliott and J. L. Fallick 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Elliott, R.
Pay in the Public sector
I. Great Britain-Officials and employees
Salaries, allowances, etc.
I. Title II. Fallick, J. L.
354'.41'001232 JN443
ISBN 978-1-349-03767-4 ISBN 978-1-349-03765-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03765-0
To Our Parents
Contents
List of Tables IX
List of Figures XII
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements XV
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR 8
Public Expenditure Growth 8
Alternative Explanations of Public Expenditure Growth 12
Public Expenditure Growth and Britain's Economic
Problems 17
The Growth of Public Sector Employment 19
The Changing Composition of the Public Sector Labour
Force 21
Conclusions 24
Appendix A: Public Sector Manual/Non-manual
Employment 1951-71 30
3. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 31
Pay Determination in Principle 31
Pay Determination in Practice 34
The machinery 34
The principle of comparability 35
Comparability versus efficiency 39
The Make-up of Pay in the Public Sector and Coverage of
Collective Agreements 42
The Changing Climate of Pay Negotiations 47
The declining resort to arbitration 48
The upsurge of militancy 50
The growth of public sector unionism 55
Conclusions 58
4. THE PAY OF MANUAL WORKERS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 63
Wage Structure 64
vii
viii Contents
A Public Sector Wage Round? 71
Further Influences on the Size of Wage Settlements 82
Conclusions 85
5. THE PAY OF NON·MANUAL WORKERS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 90
Salary Growth over the Period 1951-75 92
Incremental Payment Systems 97
Top Salaries 100
The Higher Civil Service 100
Conclusions 108
6. THE CHANGING PATTERN OF PAY DIFFERENTIALS
IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Ill
The General Pattern of Pay Differentials Ill
Manual Skill Differentials 114
Non-manual Differentials ll7
ManualfNon-manual Differentials 120
Post-tax Differentials 121
Causes of the Erosion of Differentials 122
Conclusions 126
7. THE IMPACT OF INCOMES POLICY 129
A Short History of Postwar Incomes Policies 129
The Impact of Incomes Policy on the Wages of Manual
Workers in the Public Sector 131
The Impact of Incomes Policy on the Pay of Non-manual
Workers in the Public Sector 137
Conclusions 142
8. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR PAY 146
Wage Levels in the Two Sectors 147
Low Pay 148
Pay Settlements in the Two Sectors 151
Manual workers 151
Non-manual workers 159
Conclusions 162
9. SOME PROPOSALS FOR THE FUTURE 166
The Shortcomings of the Present System 167
The Way Forward? 169
Index 175
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Public expenditure and GNP in the United
Kingdom: 1900-75 9
Table 2.2 Public expenditure on goods and services and
on domestic fixed capital formation: 1965-75 10
Table 2.3 Total public current expenditure as a pro
portion of national income in fifteen industrial
nations 12
Table 2.4 Public and private sector price indices: 1955-75 16
Table 2.5 Wages, salaries and other labour costs as a
proportion of public authorities' current ex
penditure on goods and services: 1965-75 19
Table 2.6 Public sector employment: absolute numbers
and as a percentage of totai employees in
employment 20
Table 2.7 Non-manual workers as a percentage of total
employment in the public sector: 1951-71 22
Table 2.8 Full-time and part-time employment in local
government: 1952 and 1973 23
Table 2.9 Full-time and part-time employment in central
government: 1961-71 23
Table 3.1 The make-up of pay in national agreements in
the public sector: 1968-75 43
Table 3.2 The average make-up of pay for manual and
non-manual workers in the public sector:
1968-75 46
Table 3.3 The percentage of full-time adults affected by
national agreements only in 1973 46
Table 3.4 Record of the hearings of the Civil Service
Arbitration Tribunal and Industrial Court:
1954-72 49
Table 3.5 Prominent stoppages of work in the public
sector: 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1965-75 51
ix
X List of Tables
Table 3.6 Trade union membership and density by in
dustry in the United Kingdom 54
Table 3.7 Trade union density in selected countries in the
early 1970s 56
Table 3.8 The growth of the major public sector unions:
1950-75 57
Table 4.1 Weekly wage rates of skilled manual workers in
the public sector 66
Table 4.2 Weekly wage rates of unskilled manual workers
in the public sector 68
Table 4.3 Mean period between negotiated settlements
for skilled and unskilled manual men within
each bargaining system: 1950-73 72
Table 4.4 Titles of agreements and occupations of skilled,
semi-skilled and unskilled male manual
workers and semi-skilled females 75
Table 5.1 Salary increases for managers in each sector 92
Table 5.2 Salary increases for administrative and execu
tive grades in each sector 93
Table 5.3 Salary increases for technical workers in each
sector 94
Table 5.4 Salary increases for clerical grades in each
sector 95
Table 5.5 Average increments as a percentage of salary
for senior and junior technical grades and
clerical workers 98
Table 5.6 The growth of public sector top salaries: 1950-
74 102
Table 5.7 Public sector top salaries 106
Table 6.1 Public sector skill differentials after periods of
the concentration of settlements 115
Table 6.2 Average annual salary increases by broad occu
pational group over the period: 1950-75 119
Table 7.1 The average size of wage settlements for man
ual workers during periods of incomes policy:
1950-75 133
Table 7.2 The average size of salary settlements for
clerical workers during periods of incomes
policy: 1967-75 139
Table 8.1 Average weekly earnings of manual workers in
the public and private sectors: 1950-75 147
List of Tables xi
Table 8.2 Average weekly earnings of manual and non-
manual workers in the public and private
sectors: 1970 and 1975 148
Table 8.3 The ratio of the average weekly earnings of
manual and non-manual workers in the private
sector to those in the central and local govern-
ment sectors and public corporations: 1970 and
1975 149
Table 8.4 Basic wages in selected unskilled occupations in
the public sector in 1966 and 1975 149
Table 8.5 Earnings and make-up of pay of selected man-
ual occupations in the public sector in 1975 151
Table 8.6 Average percentage changes in weekly wage
rates in the public and private sectors 152
Table 8.7 Real earnings in a sample of public and private
sector companies: 1970-75 160