Public Pay Talks - see mod warning post 4293

Why is it "not realistic" to expect pay rises to match inflation?

Taxes rise in line with inflation.

Anything less is a pay cut. Why should I or anyone else accept a pay cut?

Not going to happen. Stop using the private sector an example.

The problem with the “work a little harder” theory is it doesn’t solve the problem. When the CO does work a little harder and does get promoted, they get replaced by another CO at the bottom of the scale. You’ve just moved the problem around without solving it.

Dont fall for capitalist myths.

Only someone snuggling up and nuzzling at the teat of the State to make a living and subsistence could come up with this. An extra comfort blanket is needed rather than going out and proving yourself.

How could employers reward individual performance if everyone has to paid the same? Why should those putting in the effort be limited to the rewards of the hangers on and dossers?

That leads the star employees to leave for better pay elsewhere while the dossers hang on. Suggesting a union is like shooting yourself in the foot.

The ONLy driver of inflation is the ECB and the creation of many extra euros. Price 'inflation' is the effect of inflation, not the cause.

This looseness about what inflation really is, is what allows the monetary and fiscal authorities across Europe to deploy the narrative that they are attacking inflation (they're not even doing that, they're just posturing) whereas they are merely pretending to rein in that which they created.

If they do not allow inflation to burn through the eurozone at a fiercesome clip, there will be no more eurozone as the sovereign debt piles will explode.

Its in this context of deception re the nature of inflation that the inflationary wage spiral fallacy is truly sickening. Libertarian yanks often talk about taxation without representation. The fact is that the ordinary person (and moreso the poorest and the lowest paid) get hit disproportionately by this insidious stealth tax. We all (I didn't) bought into it when we voted for the eurozone and euro. Its inflationary by design. 40% purchasing power gone between 2002-2019. God knows how much across 2020-2022.

If wages were increased to the level of inflation, the sky would not fall. All that would happen is that that insidious underhand taxation would be redistributed to those who already earned it.

Its shockingly simple. You agreed to work for X amount on January 1 and on December 31 you find it buys you 10-15% less (price inflation is much higher than the CPI guff). Why has the gap between wages and assets opened up in the last 40 years and accelerated in recent years? Due to money being increasingly subjective, debauched and debased.

Anything less than wage increases to equal inflation is structured theft. Then again, without that structure, we wouldnt have had any pandemic payments and wouldn't have lasted 2 months on the international bond markets without Mammy (Brussels) to hold our hand. The bottom line is that life has to be paid for and not many of us have the stomach for genuine hard work any more. Regardless of the posturing here.

Ill be honest, i stopped reading after the first sentence. The ECB are not the only driver of inflation. There are many factors.

I want to be clear here. Should wages match inflation this year? Yes. Will they? No. I'm just trying to be realistic.

I think its very difficult to have any dialogue with someone as condescending as you. Hence, I am not going to engage.

Interesting times ahead - the private sector starting to feel the hit this is just the beginning, we as a country only came out of covid at the start of this year there was always going to be a boon to finances and the summer months were going to be good from a taxation point of view yet the private sector companies (local) have already started to hit the wall, as no one seen the war in Ukraine, everyone thought we were past brexit which has brought a lot of uncertainty and expense and of course the lingering supply delays from Covid have heaped up hyper inflation. Inflation will not last as people cannot afford the current prices that are ongoing and if prices don't drop more companies will hit the wall.

Be interesting to see where the 2.3Billion needed for the 10% pay rises come from. I think the government know the game is up and it cant be afforded I cant see any other reason why they would just head on their holiers without any agreement.

As someone in here said I would take what they offer that is on the table as this winter is going to be terrible for a lot of people (well in the private sector anyways) job losses, further increase in cost of living, if we add another 10% to ps pay its going to push inflation up even further and the idea that inflation will stay as high as it is will not continue. It will come down over the next 2/3 years as a lot of people currently can not afford prices and in the short term (next 12 months) costs are going to increase. Not going to continue with the posts you all know my views on PS pay the winds are changing. Good luck to you all just as an aside I dont blame you looking for your raises would love one myself but the question of affordability will have to be answered at some point in the future.

I may pop back on with updates to whats going on in the private sector as some in here really do live in a bubble.