Leading thinktank calls for targeted public sector pay increases

IFS says rises needs in order to compete with private sector after decade of wage restraint

Targeted increases in public sector pay are needed to enable the NHS, schools, the armed forces, the police, the civil service and prisons to hold on to and hire workers in the face of competition from the private sector, a thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that after a decade of wage restraint, the government now needed to respond to growing evidence of recruitment difficulties.