While Labour has acted swiftly to help public sector workers who have suffered a fall in real wages, the Tories failed when in office.
A chart produced in the Financial Times has revealed just how bad public sector pay got under the Tories, with doctors among the worst affected when it comes to real terms pay cuts.
In recent days, the Labour government has announced that it has decided to accept the recommendation of the independent pay review bodies to hand public sector workers a pay increase of 5 to 6 per cent. It has also offered junior doctors a salary rise of 22% over two years to end the strikes.
The BMA’s junior doctors’ committee has agreed to put the offer to its members. If accepted it would spell an end to long-running strike action which has led to the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of appointments since March 2023.
While Labour has acted swiftly to help public sector workers who have suffered a fall in real wages, the Tories failed when in office.
The scale of that failure has been revealed in the chart below, showing how while public sector workers have suffered a -2.5% fall in real earnings between 2010 to 2013, Doctors have suffered a pay cut of 14.7% in real terms over the same period.
Teachers meanwhile were on -9%.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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