Bigger pay rise for nurses would make little impact on inflation
Posted 18 July 2023 - 13:51
Report contradicts government and says double-digit pay rise for nurses and other public sector workers would hardly affect inflation rate
A double-digit pay rise for nurses and other public sector workers would have little impact on inflation, a think tank has said.
Analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found a 10.5% pay boost to restore public sector pay in England to 2019-20 levels would add at most 0.14 percentage points to inflation levels.
The findings contradict the government’s stance that large public sector pay rises would undermine its attempts to stifle inflation rates.
The IPPR says a 10.5% pay uplift would cost an additional £7.2 billion on top of the average 6% pay rises for public sector workers – excluding nurses – that prime minister Rishi Sunak announced last week.
The think tank suggests this should be funded from taxes such as reintroducing the national insurance rise and a wealth tax.
Urgent need to stop fall in living standards for public sector workers, says report author
IPPR researcher and report author Joseph Evans said: ‘Research shows that there is very little inflationary impact from a significant pay rise, but that the need to stop the fall in living standards for public sector workers is urgent.
‘Without an inflation-matching pay rise the public sector will continue to face a triple crisis of falling living standards, a recruitment emergency and declining quality of public services.’
The IPPR report shows nurses’ pay has suffered the largest decline since 2010 among international colleagues in the 38 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The report says: ‘Even before the cost of living crisis, nurses’ pay was 8% lower in 2020 than it was in 2010. In contrast, most other European countries have seen nurses’ pay increase or maintained at 2010 levels.’
Meanwhile nursing vacancy rates have nearly quadrupled, from 2.5% in 2010 to 9.9% in 2023. There are currently more than 40,000 nurse vacancies in the NHS in England.
Government urged to raise public sector pay faster than inflation for next five years
RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said keeping nursing pay below inflation was a political choice.
She said: ‘Over a decade of below-inflation pay rises for nurses has harmed patients and nursing staff alike. It has contributed to pushing tens of thousands of nursing staff out of the profession, put unrelenting pressure on remaining staff and left patients receiving a lower standard of care.
‘It is little wonder so many are leaving the profession or moving elsewhere when you compare nursing staff pay in the UK to other countries in the OECD. The UK government’s entire approach to public sector pay has been highly cavalier.’
The IPPR also called on the government to commit to raising public sector pay faster than inflation every year for the next five years.
The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.
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