Handing over interest rates to the Bank of England, making directors in companies unable to vote for their own pay rises – it was time for MPs to be brave and pass the decision to an independent body – and then live with the findings. It was never going to be a popular decision – to recommend a significant pay rise for one of the most unpopular and untrusted sectors of society – but sometimes the harder decision is the right one. By agreeing to abide by the recommendations of an independent pay body, MPs have placed themselves in a similar situation to doctors, military officers, headteachers and thousands of other employees who don’t have the right to choose their own pay levels.
The recommendations of IPSA will bring the pay and rewards of MPs more in line with business professionals. Adjustments to redundancy payments, expenses and pension rights are part of a package of measures which includes a re-balancing of the package to make it more in-line with the way business and public sector professional employees are treated.
However, one big area of difference still remains. Doctors, head teachers and army majors can’t decide they are going to take a full-time salary, and then do another job at the same time. A big step to making parity would have been to prevent MPs taking other paying work when they have a full-time job. It’s a decent package for a tricky and demanding job – but the public is reasonable in wanting MPs to do it full-time. And as many headteachers, doctors and RAF Group Captains will tell you – their jobs aren’t 9-5 and they don’t get overtime either.
From our perspective at Innecto, measuring the value of roles is always difficult – but by comparing with a basket of professional public sector roles, the IPSA team have come up with a view – in the same way that thousands of managers and HR people do every day. There is never a perfect answer, but at least MPs have removed themselves from the temptation of voting for their own remuneration in future.
