Senator Kristina Moore said public sector workers had been left ‘considerably worse off’ when the cost of living was taken into account.
The latest average earnings figures highlighted that in ‘real terms’ public sector workers were 3.2% worse off in June this year than the same time in 2020, after factoring in current inflation (3.5%).
Senator Moore said: ‘I think the States Employment Board should give serious consideration to reviewing pay offers.’
This should be done in line ‘with reasonable living standards’, she said, to ‘attract workers and retain people with the skills that we need and enable them to enjoy a decent quality of life’.
The retention of critical workers such as nurses, doctors and teachers was already a problem, said Senator Moore, ‘due to the cost of living they face in the Island’.
‘It concerns me greatly that public sector workers, in particular those working in frontline services who have faced a difficult two years, are going backwards in real terms,’ she said.
Senator Moore added that one option could be for the government to offer affordable nursery facilities to working families, particularly for people working shifts.
The UK’s increase in average earnings was more than double that of Jersey’s across all sectors. In the public sector the comparison was even more stark, as the Island’s increase of 0.1% was 23 times lower than in the UK (2.3%).
Statistics Jersey has said that earnings measures for the two jurisdictions were not ‘strictly comparable’ due to differing methodologies. But Senator Moore said comparisons should be drawn between Jersey and the UK, as both jurisdictions were competing for similar-skilled employees and workforces.
She said: ‘In order to benefit from these skills we need to be competitive and also an attractive place to live and work. It is not just about work, it is about quality of life.’
The public sector in Jersey has seen higher increases in average earnings in recent years, of 3.1% in 2018, 4.8% in 2019 and 3.3% in 2020 – although this does not factor in inflation.
Since 2001 real terms earnings for all sectors have remained stagnant, with earnings ‘essentially flat’ and increasing by 0.5% over the 20-year-period, according to Statistics Jersey.
