What’s the issue with salaries of senior government officers when private sector pay is so high? - Yorkshire Post Letters

Greetings from Sydney. I note with interest two stories in today’s The Yorkshire Post (April 1) on pages 2 and 8 regarding salaries paid to senior local government officers. The source of the story – a piece of ‘research’ from the Tax Payers Alliance can hardly be regarded as impartial and unbiased.

What both of your stories, and indeed the Tax Payers Alliance report itself fail to acknowledge is that when comparisons to private sector salaries are taken into consideration, those received by a few local government officers and highlighted in the report, pale into comparison.

You will simply not find any roles in the private sector with responsibilities and complexity which match those of senior local government or indeed other senior public sector employees. Yet the salaries enjoyed by senior people in the private sector simply dwarf those of public servants.

Rather than haranguing public servants, perhaps it’s time to celebrate the work they do. We have short memories. It was only five years ago when we were all dependent on the dedication, professionalism and selflessness of public servants during the pandemic.