Today it was revealed that NHS consultants pay has increased by 68% since 2000, to over £120,000 a year. Compare this to nurses whose pay has risen by just over 30% in the same period to a little over £30,000.
While Bevan was forced to bribe doctors to accept the NHS in 1948 ( see previous blogs), what is the reason for this generosity? Well here is a theory.
It seems to be a law of the pay jungle in Britain, certainly since the 70's, that the higher the salary the greater the percentage increase. For example taking 1980 as a baseline, cleaners increased their income in the next 30 years by threefold, white collar workers by fourfold, nurses, teachers and police by fivefold, doctors by nearly sevenfold, and heads of large corporations by almost fifty fold,
Britain is one of the least equal societies in the western world. No wonder that the lowest paid are feeling PRDave's cuts the most. The law of Osborne's jungle is the less you earn the larger the percentage cut, the larger your income the less percentage cut. But of course there is another principle on which the Tory cuts are based, the young lose the most, the old the least.
There was a letter in the Independent responding to previous correspondents who were prepared to accept tax rises to pay for education etc. This letter writer refused to countenance a tax rise because a one percent cut would mean losing £350 on his yearly salary of £40,000. Just one pound a day. The cost of the Independent!
No comments:
Post a Comment