Union anger over average wages
Thursday 27th August 2009, 2:59PM BST.
Nick Corbel.
THE vast majority of public sector staff earn well below the average wage, says the union that represents 1,500 States and parish workers.
The Unite union says there was an angry reaction from its members to the news yesterday that the average salary in the public sector was over £42,000.
The index of earnings was published yesterday by the States Statistics Unit and showed that the average weekly wage in Jersey was £620. However in the public sector it was £810 a week.
But the Union’s regional officer Nick Corbel said that States manual, parish and technical workers earned nowhere near that type of wage.
‘The figures included the earnings of people like hospital consultants, senior civil servants and legal advisers. They can give a false impression and no way does it give an idea of how much the ordinary worker earns,’ he said.
• See Thursday’s JEP for full story.
Read the full story in the Jersey Evening Post. Click here for subscription details. Individual editions are also available online.
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Yep the headline was misleading but anyone with a basic understanding of average/median/mean ( ie – anyone who went to school ) would immediately know it was not representative of the wage earned by the majority of islanders.
Hopefully the union leaders were able to explain this to their members ( once it had been explained to them! )
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What would be much more informative would be if the report not only defined what type of average is being used, but also the standard distribution and the implications of that.
If the JEP really wishes to inform the debate on the Island these are the sort of data that should have been explained.
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I suspect the unions were angry because the truth is out and it does not support their argument. We all know that there are some underpaid public sector workers but I suspect the vast majority are near the average when one includes pension benefits etc.
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Most people i know who work for the States are there because is cushy and well paid!
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Exactly tricky, it doesn’t matter how much Mr Corbel complains about the stated average not being a fair reflection of the majority of wages within the public sector (which may be true – as per Keith’s comment), there is still a fair comparison to make with the private sector – i.e. that the average private sector wage is lower than the average public sector wage.
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The usual “quality data” from the statistics unit / J.E.P., about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.Why not break down the earnings for each sector of the economy, thus revealing the true devide between the private trading companies, the finance sector, the states blue collar workers and the civil service (to include the hidden so called states trading staff…harbours, airport, telecoms etc).Then Mr Corbel will see that his staff are paid at least 30% more than like for like positions in the private sector, not to mention the job security.
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I was told many year ago that there are 3 lies in the world.
1. A white Lie
2. A bad lie
3. A percentage or statistic.
They say 17% of the worlds population speaks chinese, now with Jerseys estimated population at 90,000 this would mean that some ten thousand plus of of jersey population speaks chinese! So then……how many do you know ?
Lets say the Jersey Police solve no unsolved crimes in 2009, but next year they solve one out of a possible 5000. So next year in the annual police report we hear that there has been a 100% increase in solving unsolved crimes !!!
Percentages and average statistics do nothing more than ballance the books when required!
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Kevin
Since when has a 100% increase of zero been more than zero.
Perhaps you can get a job in the statistics dept ?
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Kevin,
Call me a pedant but while it is quite possible to solve a crime I’m not sure you can “solve an unsolved crime”. Isn’t this oxymoronic? I see what you mean about statistics though. I presume the reason this sort of “average” is used to determine Jersey’s average wage is because it is the same methodology as used elsewhere and therefore the figures are comparable. If that isn’t the case then the work is flawed.
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I think it was Joe Gormley the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers prior to Arthur Scargill who memorably said during pay negotiations:
“5% of £60,000 p.a. is worth having, 5% of nothing at all is nothing at all!”
(Apologies if the £ amount quoted has been seasonally adjusted)
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