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Comparability with the Private Sector
16.
We were advised that the major consideration in determining civil service pay at present is the principle of fair comparison. This principle aims at achieving fair pay for civil servants by paying them at rates broadly comparable to those paid by the private sector. The principle was first formulated by the 1965 Salaries Commission in the following terms :-
(a)
(b)
Whenever any reasonably large number of persons can be found both within the public service and outside it engaged in closely comparable work, fair comparison with the remuneration in comparable employment outside Government should be adhered to as closely as possible subject always to the allowances that must be made for differences in the two fields of employment as regards methods of payment, conditions of service generally and career prospects;
Internal relativities should be regarded as complementary to fair comparison where the latter principle can be applied and should be the first consideration in other cases.
The 1971 Salaries Commission not only endorsed the principle of fair comparison but recommended that comparability with the private sector should override all other considerations including internal relativities.
17.
To the extent that movements in private sector pay determine the level of the salary awards which result from the pay trend surveys, comparability with the private sector is a major consideration in determining civil service pay. Beyond this, the concept of the principle of fair comparison as the first and overriding principle governing civil service pay exists in theory rather than practice. The lack of suitable private sector analogues for many civil service posts and the differences in private and public sector methods of determining pay has meant that no satisfactory and acceptable means of fully linking civil service and private sector pay has yet been found.
18.
Among the representations we have received, a small but significant proportion advocate abandoning the principle of fair comparison as a means of setting civil service pay. They draw attention to the lack of analogues, to the fact that where analogues do exist the similarity in job content is frequently more apparent than real, and to the differences in private and public sector pay methods and motivation.
We
/have