A pay freeze since 2011 has seen incomes fall well behind inflation. We asked people to tell us how this has affected them

Median hourly earnings of public sector workers dropped in real terms by almost 6% between 2005 and 2015, with some sectors experiencing worse drops than others.

Teachers have seen average pay fall by £3 an hour in real terms, police officers by £2 and prison officers by £1, while the wages of nurses have stagnated during a decade of public sector salary freezes, according to a report commissioned by the Office of Manpower Economics, which supports the independent bodies making recommendations on public sector pay.

We asked public sector workers to tell us how the pay cap has affected their lives. Here’s what they said.

‘In a building of 100 workers, hardly any were earning the national average wage’ says Jones, a former work coach at the DWP Photograph: Paul Jones

‘It has made it more difficult to fund my stepson’s education and my stepmother’s care home fees’

Paul Jones, 55, former civil servant at the Department for Work and Pensions

Until last year, I earned £1,580 after tax per month. In the final three years of a 36-year career at the DWP, I was spending one month’s salary on commuting costs. And it wasn’t just me. Train fares and fuel were going up, and pay wasn’t keeping pace. Pay increased by 1% per year for the last few years and pay restraint had existed since 2008. In a building of 100 workers, hardly any were earning the average national wage.

The pay cap made it more difficult to fund my stepson’s degree and my stepmother’s care home fees. You make sacrifices, and try not to spend above the essentials. We tightened our belts for my stepson’s future.

I am expecting to receive my civil service pension in two day’s time as I have elected to receive this early but at a permanently reduced rate. My pension has been devalued by a lengthy period of pay restraint and will always remain so. My wife is a teacher who similarly ended her career early and is affected in the same way.

Many of my colleagues were hoping for voluntary redundancy packages. All the places were filled, with people finding jobs elsewhere for higher pay. Stagnant pay was certainly a factor.



‘Morale in my profession is the lowest I have ever known it’

Robert, 52, social worker*

I earn £32,000 a year and I have been qualified for 15 years. We have had no real increase since 2010. Before then, I was just about managing financially but now I am living on credit cards and have run up nearly £5,000 worth of debt in the last seven years. I have an 18-year-old son and I have been unable to do some of the things I would have wanted to do for him. I regularly borrow money from family members when I run out before the end of the month.

A good pay increase that brought us up to the level we should have had with inflationary pay rises would mean much less stress in my life and I would not be constantly worrying about finances and where I was going to get money from.

Morale in my profession is at the lowest I have ever known it. People are leaving in droves and being replaced by agency workers who come and go. Because of the council’s inability to retain workers we now have a fluid workforce, which means poorer service as children’s social workers change many times. We are now having to work an awful lot harder and most people do over their hours and are in a state of constant stress.

‘We are having to do more with fewer staff, causing a great deal of stress-related illness’

Natalie, 50, university lecturer

Since 2007 my take-home salary has increased by only around 3%. Money was not a big worry 10 years ago; it is becoming more of one now.

Almost everything has gone up in price significantly and even food now seems expensive. I go out less, travel less, spend less on entertainment and clothes. I spend a lot of time searching for the best deals on everything I need to spend money on, like insurance and utilities. I have put off many things like decorating my home, putting in a new kitchen and replacing old carpets. I haven’t been to the theatre or cinema for years.

I would like to save more, although that seems a pipe-dream at the moment; I would like to socialise more and maybe even get a television which I gave up because it is too costly. I would like to be able to worry less at the end of the month. I would like to be able to afford to use public transport more, rather than the car.

I feel that people in other jobs, in the private sector, are not only overtaking me but leaving me behind. Friends talk about holidays that I could never afford, have nice new cars and more spare time than I have. They get takeaways when they are busy. I cannot afford to do that.

People are being worked harder for less money, so consequently morale is low. Students have a right to be taught by staff who are not always exhausted and worrying about things. Cuts have meant that we are having to do more with fewer staff, causing a great deal of stress-related illness.

‘We are one big bill away from having nothing’

Laura, 40, local government planning officer

I earn £43,000. It’s a good salary but it is now frozen with maximum 1% pay rises. It’s not just about firemen, nurses and teachers but all of local government: bin men, road sweepers, planning officers and administrative staff. We are all affected but largely ignored in favour of the frontline public sector bodies.

Over the last 7 years, I have noticed that my salary does not go as far as it use to. I would class me and my husband as your typical JAM; we are one big bill away from having nothing. A pay increase would mean I’d be less worried on a monthly basis of things going wrong and needing to borrow more money.

We are not poor, we have a nice life but we don’t have many luxuries like overseas holidays, new clothes every month, computer consoles and games. Luxuries have reduced significantly over the last 3 years in particular. Every month we are using what should be our savings. We have a good combined salary so we should be able to enjoy these things. If I had been getting pay rises in line with inflation for the last 5 years, we would be doing OK.

Morale is terrible, and the pay cap has everything to do with this. And funding for local government is at minimum levels, which affects us all.

‘I am constantly in my overdraft and have to borrow money’



Chloe, 28, secondary school teacher

I earn £30,000, which is barely enough to cover living costs. I am in my overdraft every month and usually have to pay banking fees on top of this. I have to borrow money from my boyfriend who is a teacher earning slightly more than me, which has obviously had an impact upon our relationship at times.

We haven’t been able to afford holidays and the idea of having children and buying a house is pretty much a fantasy for us that we’ll never be able to afford. We are living paycheque to paycheque with no savings after we have paid our rent each month. We hardly ever eat out and have to carefully meal plan.

To earn a decent salary increase, I would have to apply for senior leadership roles at my school, which I do not want to take responsibility for since I have only been teaching for 5 years. And the competition for these roles is intense. It seems that the only way to stay afloat in teaching is to take on extra responsibilities, which we do not have the time to do due to the increase in examinations and pressure to meet targets. The marking each year increases as do the class sizes, meaning that our time is already stretched.

I’m in the process of applying abroad for teaching roles to save some money, but I’m unhappy that I have to give up everything here just to become debt free. A teacher’s salary should reflect what we are offered abroad. We work longer hours than the independent sector, which is now going to suck up all the talent due to the respect and financial dignity that teachers are rewarded with there.

Many people within teaching come from middle-class backgrounds, meaning they usually have savings or at least parents who can help them to save for a deposit. As someone from a working-class background who doesn’t have these resources, I feel my morale is fairly low.

‘Morale is a case of resigned acceptance’

Stephen, 38, civil servant

I currently earn £23,432 per year. I was promoted into my grade as an executive officer in 2010, just prior to the pay freeze. I was at the bottom of my pay scale and have remained there ever since despite being a high performer because, along with the pay freeze and subsequent 1% pay cap, the government also removed pay progression, meaning that I had no way of moving up my pay scale.

This had the unfair effect of long-term staff being paid up to £4,000 more than me irrespective of their performance, just because they had been in longer and had reached the top of the pay scale. Morale is a case of resigned acceptance. But there is some resentment between new staff and long-term staff.

Not moving up my pay scale has meant that my pay has stagnated while the cost of living has increased. I haven’t been able to make planned purchases like getting a new car or annual holidays because my pay hasn’t risen. I have become a father during this pay freeze and it would help with childcare costs and allow me to save money to take a family holiday abroad. I love travelling and want to pass this on to my son.

*Some names have been changed