It hasn’t taken long for the prospect of a squeeze on public spending to be translated into proposals for a public sector pay freeze – Audit Commission Chief Executive Steve Bundred called for such action over the weekend. With public sector employment accounting for 60% of all jobs in Wales, freezing pay is an obvious, easy and no doubt populist idea. But it doesn’t stack up. The great majority of public sector workers are not well paid, with a quarter of ALL low paid workers (i.e. those earning less than £7 an hour) being found there. PCS – the civil service union – point out that nearly half of all civil servants earn less than £20,000 a year. Pointing the finger at all public sector workers conveniently detracts scrutiny from the few, highly paid public sector workers (£70 to 75,000 for the Arts Council of Wales Chief Exec, more than £80k for the Food Standards Agency boss and the Older People’s Commissioner, more still for the Chief Exec’s of new LHBs), as well as from the private sector bosses who continue to line their pockets. There are more effective ways of achieving cuts than freezing the meagre pay of school dinner ladies, hospital porters and benefit clerks. Leave your ideas here!