Millions of public sector workers in England are expected to face a pay freeze next year, after a huge rise in Government spending to fight coronavirus. Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, a social policy expert at the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR), has commented on how this highlights the issue of pay gaps already present, in both public and private sectors. He said:
‘Talk of a public sector pay freeze inevitably raises questions of comparison between public and private sector workers. This misses the point. The gap between high and low pay in the private sector and to a lesser extent in the public sector has grown wider during the past decade. The benefits that help support those on low pay have been cut back. If we want to address the needs of the lowest-paid workers, public or private, we must reinstate those benefits.
‘The next option for Chancellors seeking finance is the windfall gain of online retailers, gaming website operators and others who have benefited from the lockdown looking for spare cash. Only then can we start thinking about how to manage public sector pay.’
Professor Taylor-Gooby’s main interests are in current developments in the welfare state: the cuts and welfare state restructuring, the social divisions association with inequality and the struggles over multiculturalism. He has further interests in cross-disciplinary work on risk, comparative cross-national work on European social policy and work on theoretical developments in social policy.