Almost 900,000 public sector workers will be given an above-inflation pay rise on Tuesday, the Chancellor has announced, praising their work on the frontline during the pandemic.
Teachers and doctors will be seeing the largest increase at 3.1% and 2.8% respectively, according to the Treasury. Police, prison officers and National Crime Agency staff will be given a 2.5% rise in pay and members of the armed forces will receive a 2% uplift. Members of the judiciary and senior civil servants will also see their pay topped up by 2%.
Each award is recommended by independent pay review bodies, and this year the government has accepted the suggested rise for each workforce.
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said: “These past months have underlined what we always knew, that our public sector workers make a vital contribution to our country and that we can rely on them when we need them.
“It’s right therefore that we follow the recommendations of the independent pay bodies with this set of real-terms pay rises.”
More than 300 NHS workers have died in England alone after contracting the deadly virus, many doing so while caring for patients.
Teachers continued looking after the children of key workers throughout the lockdown while police have been enforcing physical distancing rules, which at their sternest forbade leaving the house except for specified circumstances.
The pay awards for the armed forces, prison officers, senior civil servants and NHS staff will be backdated to April, whereas the pay rise for police and teachers starts in September due to those professions operating on a different pay schedule running from September to August.
The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, called for social care workers to be added to the ranks of those being offered a pay rise.
“These rises are welcome, but there’s still a long way to go to restore pay after a decade of real-terms cuts,” she said.
“Many public sector workers, like job centre staff and local government workers, aren’t getting these rises. They deserve a decent pay settlement too.
“And the government should urgently announce a pay rise for social care workers, who put their lives on the line to care for others during this pandemic.”