50p Tax band for high earners - good idea or not?

[RutlandFlyer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/10370699/Public-sector-workers-earn-3200-more-than-those-in-private-sector.html

 

Public sector workers across large swathes of Britain earn up to £3200 more than those working in the private sector.

 

These kind of comparisons are very misleading for a number of reasons, the biggest being that public sector organisations now commonly outsource a lot of their lowest paid jobs to private sector companies, which drags the average for private sector pay down quite a bit. Zero hour contracts for low and minimum-wage employees are more common in the private sector, too.

 

Proportionally, the public sector has more high skilled jobs compared to the private sector and public sector employees tend to be more educated as a result. Then on top of that, public sector employees tend to be older and more experienced and it's reasonable to expect experienced workers' earnings to be higher.

 

Once you adjust for those things, there's very little in it. The only strong trends are that the bottom 5% of public sector workers earn about £1p/h more than the bottom 5% of private sector workers. but because of outsourcing it's unlikely they are doing the same kind of jobs. At the top, the highest 1% of private sector workers earn about £13p/h more than the highest 1% of publc sector workers, likely as a result of free market conditions.

 

Policy Exchange and the Telegraph would like to push the £3,200 figure because it supports their small state agenda as long as people take it at face value. It doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, though and the ONS have plenty of figures that fly in its face.

[Mecky]

Now who's practicing divide and conquor tactics..?

 

errrmmm you?

[ivanava]

These kind of comparisons are very misleading for a number of reasons, the biggest being that public sector organisations now commonly outsource a lot of their lowest paid jobs to private sector companies, which drags the average for private sector pay down quite a bit. Zero hour contracts for low and minimum-wage employees are more common in the private sector, too.

 

Proportionally, the public sector has more high skilled jobs compared to the private sector and public sector employees tend to be more educated as a result. Then on top of that, public sector employees tend to be older and more experienced and it's reasonable to expect experienced workers' earnings to be higher.

 

Once you adjust for those things, there's very little in it. The only strong trends are that the bottom 5% of public sector workers earn about £1p/h more than the bottom 5% of private sector workers. but because of outsourcing it's unlikely they are doing the same kind of jobs. At the top, the highest 1% of private sector workers earn about £13p/h more than the highest 1% of publc sector workers, likely as a result of free market conditions.

 

Policy Exchange and the Telegraph would like to push the £3,200 figure because it supports their small state agenda as long as people take it at face value. It doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, though and the ONS have plenty of figures that fly in its face.

 

One would expect there to be substantially less incompetence if that was the case.

[I1L2T3]

In a nutshell that's the problem with the 50% tax rate - populist and good for votes, bad for the economy and for the hard-working/clever/and occasionally lucky people who have earned it.

 

---------- Post added 29-01-2014 at 12:34 ----------

 

 

"like" button pressed

 

The 50p rate might be good or bad, or neither. Nobody really knows - the 45p rate needs time to bed in first.

 

But you're absolutely right about the populist aspect of it. Balls went back to it hoping to push some buttons with the electorate. The coalition went for 45p instead of 40p because they know the issue pushes those buttons.

[Xt500]

One would expect there to be substantially less incompetence if that was the case.

 

 

..............

 

---------- Post added 29-01-2014 at 15:11 ----------

 

It doesnt matter..45p,50p or what ever it wont make the slightest difference to the majority. Its just to work the minds of the jealous types and give them the opertunaty to think others better off than themselfs might be deprived a little.They wont,nor will anyone else gain even if it worked.From what i see nobody is really sure and aboth Labour and Cons would probably impliment it if there was profit to be had.

 

Its just something to give the BBC something to do

[Mister M]

These kind of comparisons are very misleading for a number of reasons, the biggest being that public sector organisations now commonly outsource a lot of their lowest paid jobs to private sector companies, which drags the average for private sector pay down quite a bit. Zero hour contracts for low and minimum-wage employees are more common in the private sector, too.

 

Proportionally, the public sector has more high skilled jobs compared to the private sector and public sector employees tend to be more educated as a result. Then on top of that, public sector employees tend to be older and more experienced and it's reasonable to expect experienced workers' earnings to be higher.

 

Once you adjust for those things, there's very little in it. The only strong trends are that the bottom 5% of public sector workers earn about £1p/h more than the bottom 5% of private sector workers. but because of outsourcing it's unlikely they are doing the same kind of jobs. At the top, the highest 1% of private sector workers earn about £13p/h more than the highest 1% of publc sector workers, likely as a result of free market conditions.

 

Policy Exchange and the Telegraph would like to push the £3,200 figure because it supports their small state agenda as long as people take it at face value. It doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny, though and the ONS have plenty of figures that fly in its face.

 

Indeed they have. Just one of these is data from the TUC which shows that workers in the public sector actually put in more unpaid hours than those in the private sector.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/work-life-balance/more-people-working-unpaid-overtime-ever

Now I don't think that's a good thing that anyone should regularly be doing unpaid work, however if the boot was on the other foot and it was private sector workers doing more unpaid work, the Telegraph, BBC, Policy Exchange and the rest would be shoving it down our throats with glee.

[truman]

Indeed they have. Just one of these is data from the TUC which shows that workers in the public sector actually put in more unpaid hours than those in the private sector.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/work-life-balance/more-people-working-unpaid-overtime-ever

Now I don't think that's a good thing that anyone should regularly be doing unpaid work, however if the boot was on the other foot and it was private sector workers doing more unpaid work, the Telegraph, BBC, Policy Exchange and the rest would be shoving it down our throats with glee.

 

To be honest that report is 3 years old...

[Mecky]

To be honest that report is 3 years old...

 

How about fishing up news articles from the past or current to align with your political views and disregarding the rest that doesn't fit?

[RonJeremy]

To be honest that report is 3 years old...

 

And it's produced by the TUC - it's not even left LEANING - it's as far left as goes pretty much. I sjould just ignore it

[Mister M]

And it's produced by the TUC - it's not even left LEANING - it's as far left as goes pretty much. I sjould just ignore it

 

That you think the TUC is as far left as it goes, shows how right wing your politics are, since there are a substantial number of trade unionists that are loyal Tories.

But back to the substantive point, the TUC simply published the data that the Office for National Statistics collected and analysed. Are you saying that the ONS is a hotbed of Communists?

And I suspect that you want to ignore it is because it contradicts your world view that public sector workers are idle when compared with private sector workers.