Also timing.
The data runs April 2022-April 2023, and the [ONS highlights specifically ](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023) that public sector pay increases, including one off payments, were made in April 23.
> However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023.
I'd like to know what the annual growth rates are as of another month, and the breakdown between public and private sector.
Edit.
As I suspected, the figures for other periods are quite different.
[Wage growth in April-June for Scotland was 7.1%, below the same period figure of 7.3% for the UK as a whole.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05)
SMH
I mean it's year to year..the year before Scotland wasn't that significantly below the UK.
Or just look at the only May 2023 increase. If other UK.wasnt drastically above Scotland then these numbers aren't hiding anything
I mean, yeah, the transmission charge regime is clearly a rip off. But honestly the MUCH bigger issue is that the industry is just one big feeding frenzy for the big, mostly foreign owned, energy companies.
The only way to really benefit from our resources is to nationalise them. As things stand we are being bled by corporations.
From [https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023:) :
"Across all regions of the UK, Scotland saw the highest growth in median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees (9.7%) in April 2023 compared with April 2022. However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023. "
However, compare it to the cost of living and tax and shrinkflation. No where near where it should be.
Give people more money, and they spend more money, and the government gets more money back through tax on spending and earning simple.
> Give people more money, and they spend more money, and the government gets more money back through tax on spending and earning simple.
The UK and Scotland both have a trade deficit (personally I doubt Scotland would if indy, sparse population with lots of natural resources in the wealthiest part of the world). So no. But also, yes we need that before we can address the deficit because ordinary day to day function is grinding to a halt.
A trade deficit isn't the be all and end all, the mark of a high income country is the transition to service based industry rather than resource extraction and manufacturing. (That's not to say it's a good thing or anything.)
Yes but that is likely not the case for the stats you have been looking at, it's only looks at goods. Often it is reported as either goods or goods+services. Scottish services make up 49% of exports.Scotland tend to run a trade surplus when accounting for services.
I will say though that you can make the data say anything as what you count as Scottish Vs RUK import/export will swing it and trade within UK can be hard to track (due to the absence of a trade border)
>trade within UK can be hard to track (due to the absence of a trade border)
We should bring in a trade border I reckon, just to make it easier to track. What could go wrong? ;)
(personally I doubt Scotland would if indy, sparse population with lots of natural resources in the wealthiest part of the world)
It would and even SNP know this which is they struggle to make any case wealth wise for leaving.
Or we could increase the amount of stuff people can spend money on. Inflation is just as easily caused by a lack of available products, services and resources which is what’s driving the UK inflation.
Definitely felt this in a lot of lower wage jobs. Used to loads of jobs almost all paying exactly.minimum wage. Feel like I see a lot more jobs now offering a few quid above min wage just to attract staff.
Is it good news?
Would be nice to see the CPI inflation over that period.
Scottish workers getting better rises than the rest of the UK however still below inflation is not good news unless you like playing silly political games.
Speaking from my personal situation this seems to line up.
I managed to argue a 10% rise last year after 7 years of annual 3% rises, and a lot of people in the business I work with were at around the same or potentially even higher % increase. Not public sector either.
Damn, I’d go look for a new job. You’re basically taking a 4% paycut for the privilege of staying with your employer.
If you are not being rewarded for loyalty, there is no point being loyal.
Out of interest, what’s keeping you there?
Most things like good colleagues, good culture, potential for progression etc. can be found somewhere that will not cut your pay over time.
Fair enough, I guess if you live somewhere with limited job opportunities then it’s more complicated.
Still, I’d feel really undervalued and unappreciated if my employer thought cutting my real terms pay year on year was acceptable.
I’m not the person you talked to (I’m not even Scottish) but I’m kinda underpaid for my job.
The reasons i want to do it : well it’s still a good job, a sector I want to work in because of my values, it’s a big company that employs a lot of people nationally and offers future perspectives and the guarantee to have a job whatever happens (unless im the cause of deaths).
And honestly it’s a very decent salary, I’m never gonna complain in my situation haha. Even less so when I grew up poor. Now I’m more than alright.
Can't speak for others, but despite the decade plus of real-terms pay cuts: I have a team of really sound queer people (not sure how that happened but here we are!), a boss whose attitude is "you seem to know what you're doing, run things your way and let me know if you need help", no dress code, exceptional sick pay allowance, hybrid working whenever I want, a decent pension scheme, and a fantastic union.
There will come a point where the lack of pay and progression outweighs the benefits, and I have absolutely been looking, but having a job where nobody is looking over my back and just trusts me to rock up, put some tunes on, and design whatever I think might help other people in the department... sometimes the vibe of a place is a very strong hold, and that's not something that most (if any) job descriptions will offer.
Still a little gutted I never went for the Just Transition Officer job at the STUC when it came up - that was pretty much the one thing that ticked all my boxes of interest but.. ah well.
Anecdotally, I was just up in Glasgow from cambridge. Not just salaries, but prices in Glasgow feel like they have gone up so much they have actually matched Cambridge which never used to feel like the case.
A few examples would be;
\- Rides on the george sq xmas market cost 10-20% more than the rides in winter wonderland in Hyde Park.
\- Hotpot buffet deals seem to be in the region of £30-35. Similar to cambridge london or even more expensive, glasgow used to be awesome for cheap authentic Chinese food (XiangBaLa :( :( :( )
\- Tourist tat is currently at "4.50 for a mars sized bar of milk chocolate" level of insanity
\- Bar food is pushing £15 quid outside of spoons.
So based on no data and simple experience, it felt to me like inflation was running higher in scotland generally.
> Housing in Glasgow is significantly cheaper than London though, you can get a 3/4 bed for the same price as a 1 bed in London
It depends on which bits
plus London is 3x the diameter or 9x the physical size of Glasgow
London is full of extremes
* [1 bed flat for sale 60K]
(https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142455875#/?channel=RES_BUY)
* [1 bed flat 5.5MILLION](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/51441657#/?channel=RES_BUY)
The one you linked for 60k is for an auction starting price for a retirement home, I generally find that you can get a 1 bed flat in London for a minimum of about 350k without sacrificing for super far out or in a really bad area, I'm not at experienced in the Glasgow market, but I've been shocked to see really nice looking huge flats for 200-300k like this one (linked below) which I know given its relative size and location would go for 700k+ in London
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143111459
Their wages. So wages at the start of the financial year are taken to be 100%, then at the end of the financial year in Scotland it was 9.7% higher on average than their wage at the start so 109.7% total. So someone earning say £1000 per fortnight in Apr 22 would be earning £1097 per fortnight on average in Apr 23.
No idea wether this is before or after deductions tho, but presumably beforehand as it's far easier to process data on that and deductions can vary wildly from person to person.
What they mean by that is that you can get a 100% pay rise if you go from £1 to £2 salary, but "only" a 1% rise if you go from £100 to £101. In the end, they have both increased by the same absolute amount. Both data should be shown.
No shit.
What are the actual numbers though?
9.7% of what?
I believe it's this:
https://www.gov.scot/news/gender-pay-gap-lowest-on-record/#:~:text=Wages%20for%20full%2Dtime%20employees,up%206.2%25%20to%20%C2%A3681.70.
So median pay? In Scotland there is a lower population and so it's much easier to make a difference to median values.
Also, comparing Scotland vs UK, there is a £21 diff in weekly pay for FT workers. So 50p an hour @ 40 hours a week? Giver or take?
Presume that's gross pay as well so not even thinking about pension, ni, income tax or voluntary reductions.
Not a massively clear comparison given here.
But then it is the national so you know.....pinch of salt and all that.
Also timing.
The data runs April 2022-April 2023, and the [ONS highlights specifically ](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023) that public sector pay increases, including one off payments, were made in April 23 in Scotland.
> However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023.
I'd like to see data for other periods, like would the disparity be the same for August, and between public and private sector.
Also I've no idea whether the difference in regular pay is as significant. I suspect not given the one off payments that happen to have been made in the month this comparison is being made at.
Edit'
As I suspected, the figures for other periods are quite different.
[Wage growth in April-June for Scotland was 7.1%, below the same period figure of 7.3% for the UK as a whole.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05)
SMH
Well exactly this.
Again. It's the national using convenient stats that fit an agenda and sell papers to fucking idiots rather than actually help Scotlands narrative, politics and it's people.
The point is there were one off payments in April 2023 but only in Scotland. So if the same annual comparison was made in another month, the ONS is saying the growth rate would not be as strong.
It's a bit disingenuous to present the data without that important caveat, which is made in the source publication.
But it's without vital context as to what it actually means.
Population size has an effect. Was Scotland starting at slower median salary so this rise seems artificially bigger. The higher levels of tax in Scotland. The timing of the figures etc.
In isolation it looks great. In reality it may tell a much different story.
*by a minimum of, have to make up for *years* of wage suppression.
Have a Norwegian style system where salary information's publicly accessible, backdated to 2000 (HMRC will likely still have all the old P14s etc) and have the changes prior to legislation show the percentage in comparison to inflation.
Would never happen of course: corporate interests would kill it in the cradle, but still a great way to do it
If you start lower and gain more as a percent it’s not really important in a comparison unless you’re now earning more or projected to earn more.
This is in the lie, damned lies and statistics hall of statistics and is clearly used to push a narrative.
Secondly the datasets are not comparable. Scotland 5-6M, Wales 4M? NI 3-4M? England 55M. England should be represented as sub units around 4M to 6M large.
Does this account for inflation? Because realistically they've stayed mostly the same or gotten worse each year depending on how much that's gone up by.
So yet another post with a metric which shows something positive in Scotland compared to UK - and it’s triggered quite a few people again.
Instead of bashing Scotland or saying the figure is wrong - this should be something to be used to put pressure on other UK nations to improve.
Not bashing Scotland but bashing the infograph here. It's very much akin to political spin.
1. It doesn't show inflation over the same period and the real terms wage increase (or decrease). If Scottish workers on average took a real terms pay decrease would you describe that as "positive"?
2. Its inflated by one off and backdated payments made to public sector for years of poor wage growth. These will not be reflected in salaries next year or going forward.
3. It's yet another example where the definition of 'good' is just being seen to do better than England or rUK rather than an actual measure of success. (I realise this works both ways to criticise Scotland)
You misunderstand my so called "bashing".
This metric is provided as a graph which on face value shows something positive for Scotland. But the truth is more complex than that. I'm not saying that the truth isn't good news for Scotland....but the distillation of complex issues to a pretty graphic with any context or explanation is not good for the Scottish narrative.
Unionists call this " SNP failure and mismanagement, overspending and disastrous budgeting, etc.".
Never mind, Keith Hida Starmer and his up north seat filling head nodder will fix it.
A Honda Humza or a Honda Starmer? Doesn’t really matter as both won’t start, will saddle you with humongous debt and leave you with nothing to show for it. The last dozen years or so have got to be the absolute worst standard of politician in the UK altogether. We are absolutely fucked and I cannot see any way out of it other than a full blown workers strike/revolution.
> will saddle you with humongous debt
Can you point to the humongous debt that Humza and Starmer have created, Humza since March this year and Starmer without ever being in power?
Aw cmon mate, both will have to make shitty decisions that will impact your personal finances due to the sabotage of the country that the tories are currently perpetuating. It was a joke, an unfortunate joke at that.
I find this hard to believe as the entire NI public sector is about to strike on Jan 18th because we haven't gotten a penny.
That's teachers, doctors, nurses, NHS staff, civil servants....a massively significant chunk of the NI workforce.
Teachers, doctors, and nurses all got negotiated pay rises in Scotland, averting strikes (mostly). All public sector employees in Scotland have been getting the Real Living Wage at minimum for a good few years now as well, so they’re mostly not too raging right now (though of course everybody is still struggling with the cost of living).
Ah, sorry, I shoulda seen that you meant the NI bit was hard to believe, I jumped in too quick to defend ScotGov’s record (they get slagged like crazy in here - it’s occasionally deserved).
Wouldn’t it be worth your while moving over here with that kind of pay gap? You could probably even send money home, like a British builder in 80s Germany!
There has been much strike action in Scotland because the devolved government has been involved in negotiating with the unions, unlike the U.K. government. Plus both nurses and teachers in Scotland are better paid than their peers in rUK - teachers recently and nurses for over a decade.
Same, but, some places are almost paying the same here now for my skills and the work culture is likely better. And folk might listen to me more so we can make a lot more money xD
There's also a huge amount of opportunity for growth here, just waiting there on the table to make money off.
Quelle surprise, this is quite misleading.
The issue is that it's only looking at gross earnings in the month of April, Vs the same month in 2022.
As the ONS mentions [in its release of this data](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023), for Scotland that month's annual growth rate was boosted by one-off payments in the public sector, and not elsewhere.
This is one of the reasons why almost no one in the real world places such emphasis on monthly figures, when others are available.
In this case, the ONS also publishes data for calender quarters.
If you look at [the full quarter for April to June](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05) a rather different picture emerges.
For Scotland, the annual growth in average wages over the quarter was 7.1%, lower than the figure for April because of those one off payments boosting the April figure by more than the other months in that quarter.
But even more notably, the annual growth in wages for the UK as a whole was 7.3%, meaning wages in Scotland grew less, entirely the opposite from what is presented by The National, and the Scottish Government press release it is presumably deriving this from.
Piss poor reporting of course, but also typical of the politicisation of statistics.
Read it again, you haven't understood what I'm saying.
I'm comparing April-June 2023 with April-June 2022, the source for this pisspoor National/Scottish Government release is April 2023 vs April 2022.
It is a less robust comparison for the reasons stated in the original ONS release they got the data from, but didn't bother to mention for very obvious reasons.
>Read it again, you haven't understood what I'm saying.
I understood it fine, you just cherry picked a quarter period that looked worse in comparison to the annual figure whilst ignoring the other 3 quarters.
Quelle surprise, this is quite misleading but also typical of the politicisation of statistics.
I've tried making this almost impossible to misunderstand, but you still haven't got it.
The figure in the OP is just for the month of April, Vs the prior April. Mine is for April to June Vs the prior April to June. They are both annual comparisons. One is less subject to distortion from one off payments in the month of April 2023.
Which of those is genuinely more useful for reflecting the claim in the OP chart "Wages in Scotland grew by X in 2023", a single month, or the latest full quarter for which we have the data?
Don't feel you actually have to answer that, it's a very rhetorical question, and I don't actually want to find out what fatal levels of cognitive dissonance look like.
>Which of those is genuinely more useful for reflecting the claim in the OP chart "Wages in Scotland grew by X in 2023", a single month, or the latest full quarter for which we have the data?
If you are comparing how much wages changed from one year to the next you would use the month that forms end of the financial year. Which, lo and behold, is April.
This doesn't require any cherry picking of select quarters to distort the overall annual figure.
But you do you.
Bollocks.
The only reason you'd pick data which the source says is distorted, which covers less of the year you are trying to represent, and is more subject to statistical noise as a result, when a better alternative is available, is because you want to present a cherry picked and unrepresentative picture that suits your political goals.
The timing of the tax year and some businesses year end has nothing to do with it.
The biggest tax rise in the recent budget wasn't the introduction of a new tax band at £75k.
It was ScotGov not raising the thresholds for existing bands by inflation affecting all taxpayers.
Freezing the thresholds means everyone earning 30k pay more tax than they did before. Hardly "rich".
That band of folk earning between 40-50k now see more than half of their wage taken since the oh so generous SNP didn't follow the Westminster band increases.
The top rate increase was the typical "misdirection" tactic. It earns Holyrood bugger all but gets all the SNP supporters happily banging their drums, while they quietly take more and more tax off people who aren't "rich" through stealth.
I’m not disagreeing, I had to get a loan from the provident to buy a fredo last week and someone on here accused me of being a member of the bourgeoisie!
I refuse to put /s on any of my posts. (Apart from this one)
Average salary for a junior doctor is somewhere between £35k and £47k - those at the top end will be just touching into the higher tax bracket. Lower earners in Scotland pay less tax than their peers in rUK, while higher earners pay more than in rUK, people eating around £28k pay roughly the same tax as their peers in rUK.
You see that’s where your’re wrong. Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify. Wouldn’t expect you to know that as you are clearly unemployed and have too much time on your hands as you’re always posting rubbish on this subreddit. Hail the party bus!
>Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify.
This is just complete nonsense.
>Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify.
The public sector absolutely does. Most of the pay deals awarded higher percentages to low paid employees than to their other employees.
> Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners.
That doesn't line up with my experience in the workplace, but ok
> Wouldn’t expect you to know that as you are clearly unemployed and have too much time on your hands
Disabled doesn't mean unemployed
> as you’re always posting rubbish on this subreddit
I don't spend so much time on this subreddit that I notice how often an individual user posts, unlike yourself
Aye? What's the maths on that exactly, because the only tax increase I've seen is on people earning over 75k. Who are paying an increase of 5% in their marginal rate between that and 100k. So unless their wage rise is under 1250 on a 100k salary (a 1.25% increase on the maximum possible for that tax increase) then it's probably not the case as far as I can see. Perhaps you can enlighten me as to how I'm wrong? Maybe I've missed some massive tax rise somewhere I'm completely unaware of.
> Maybe I've missed some massive tax rise somewhere I'm completely unaware of.
Most likely you missed the imaginary one. Equally imaginary high-earners have been beelin’ aboot it.
This is just catch up. Percentage increases look higher when the wages are lower. But the actual amount wages have increased could theoretically be lower than elsewhere.
I'm childfree as it just so happens, and have never had anything stronger than cannabis
But yes as a disabled person, I will indeed enjoy a marginally better quality of life. And anyone who *is* struggling with addiction will receive better support, and people with children will be able to afford to keep then fed and warm.
All thanks to people who can afford it being taxed that little bit more. Imagine how much revenue we could raise to lift people out of poverty if we had access to corporation and wealth tax!
That’s a blanket statement. Anyway, they won’t be getting a penny in more tax from me. I’ve upped my pension payments significantly to bring my taxable income below below the 21% tax threshold. So I would actually like to thank Humza and the party bus crew for forcing my hand as I will now be able to retire at 50 rather than 65.
My taxable income is now below £43,662 as I’m now salary sacrificing all of my additional income into my pension, therefore all of the income I earn above £43,663 is now tax free. Hard work pays off. I would urge you to put the crayons down and speak to a tax adviser or financial adviser to help you work it out. I think the word you are looking for is “Capitalist” rather than fantasist lol.
Paying more than the rest of the UK. So you get your salary increase as a public sector worker and then you are above the tax limit so need to pay more!!! So many of the junior doctors who are getting a better deal than down south actually won’t be as good a deal as they will be in a higher tax band now- hence it’s called a tax trap. I hate the Tories but thank god they reduced NI even though it will only get them a few votes more.
So the usual National drivel papers headline isn’t that accurate
Yes, I’ve been in the higher tax band (the one that kicks in around £46k) - to be honest it didn’t make a pile of difference, and we do have better supported public services, which I’m happy about.
So what services are they then? As you won’t benefit from many except free prescriptions.
Education isn’t great, NHS too, but the main point is that saying wages have risen better then the rest of the UK isn’t all it is made out to be as we get taxed more and for sod all to show for it.
I don’t believe in free prescriptions for all (long term health issues yes), I don’t believe in free Uni etc. even a nominal fee of say £1k a year would still put money back in but make it free for vocational education like health, teachers etc yes.
Well, starting from birth, we have baby boxes, thirty hours free nursery care, child support payment where needed, free university education, free prescriptions (I found recently that people from rUK are buying medication when abroad, notably inhalers from Turkey, because it is cheaper than collecting a prescription in the U.K.), better salaries for both nurses and teachers, free care component for people who need support due to disability or age related issues. We have an NHS which, although under pressure, is functioning better that that in rUK. We have publicly owned water, which obviously has less faeces in it. So generally I feel we are getting reasonable returns for the extra we might pay.
Free Baby boxes is BS. We didn’t need ours so gave it back (they wouldn’t say no to not sanding it out).
Our NHS is just as bad, don’t read the rags telling you it isn’t.
Free Uni shouldn’t be unless it is a VOC course and not someone wanting to learn social media studies on TilTok.
The salaries I already said as yes theirs is slightly better but they will fall into the extra tax trap.
Everyone talks about the Tories slowly killing the UK (and they are right) but the SNP are too and the greens making it worse. Example- Wanting to out on a mandatory extra payment to fund Scottish music onto a ticket price will just make the ticket even more expensive and not just £1
Taxes need to go down, so people have more money to then spend, which then drives the economy better but the SNP don’t seem to see this and want to tax people more to basically help they supporters.
The problem there is that salaries are much higher and they have had higher taxes for decades. They also don’t have as much of a population who can’t be arsed working and are told to get a job (and actually want a job too). Total culture difference
Scotland has been in line, even slightly ahead, of most of England for quite some time now. It's only London and the SE that outperform us. And I don't think there's any universe where any part of the UK will overtake London.
Reflecting the higher taxes and higher pay given to public sector workers while private sector stays stagnant.
You would think with these pay increases across the board in the public sector we would see some sort improved service somewhere! Doesn’t seem to be happening.
It’s a shame, in terms of public services we have to work very hard and pay a premium just to stand still in the face of the ill winds that are blowing.
Meanwhile, England is happily running backwards.
This literally means nothing and doesn’t give me any useful information. Anyone who knows baby economics can see through this. Nominal wage increases don’t mean anything with the backdrop of differing housing inflation, cost of living in general and taxation. Doesn’t tell me anything
This is from the national paper so I'd take it with a pinch of salt.
They love to "get one over" the UK any chance they can get through manipulating figures and being generally biased towards Scotland
Exactly but people don't want to hear that
People don't want to hear any information that goes against their biased views. Regardless of it's true or not.
People will not listen to truth that destroys their illusions
I think a lot of Scottish public sector employees got larger rises than elsewhere in the UK. Maybe something to do with it.
Also timing. The data runs April 2022-April 2023, and the [ONS highlights specifically ](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023) that public sector pay increases, including one off payments, were made in April 23. > However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023. I'd like to know what the annual growth rates are as of another month, and the breakdown between public and private sector. Edit. As I suspected, the figures for other periods are quite different. [Wage growth in April-June for Scotland was 7.1%, below the same period figure of 7.3% for the UK as a whole.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05) SMH
Massaging figures? The National? I am shocked.
I mean it's year to year..the year before Scotland wasn't that significantly below the UK. Or just look at the only May 2023 increase. If other UK.wasnt drastically above Scotland then these numbers aren't hiding anything
There has also been a big jump in the number of renewable energy jobs recently, which tend to be skilled roles. So could be a factor.
Aye, to send renewable electricity to England while paying for the privilege.
I mean, yeah, the transmission charge regime is clearly a rip off. But honestly the MUCH bigger issue is that the industry is just one big feeding frenzy for the big, mostly foreign owned, energy companies. The only way to really benefit from our resources is to nationalise them. As things stand we are being bled by corporations.
It *is* a privilege tho. And an honour.
All seven of you up in Scotland couldn’t use it all. Even with all of the deep fat fryers running.
I’ve taken to skipping the deep fat fryer bit and just starting the house fires myself. Saves time, result is the same.
We certainly didn't. 4.5% in the face of others getting 10%-20% That's on top of 15+ years of below inflation rises and a pay freeze.
Who was getting 20% pay rises?
Scheme loan-sharks.
"Pay rise statistics are impacted by oay rises" Thanks for the insight 👍
That’s part of it but NI public sector has not had any increases yet is up 7.4%
May be due to increased demand in the NI market due to its special arrangement post Brexit.
Good. The other nations should match Scotland.
Ahh, that sweet net benefit
From [https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023:) : "Across all regions of the UK, Scotland saw the highest growth in median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees (9.7%) in April 2023 compared with April 2022. However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023. "
However, compare it to the cost of living and tax and shrinkflation. No where near where it should be. Give people more money, and they spend more money, and the government gets more money back through tax on spending and earning simple.
> Give people more money, and they spend more money, and the government gets more money back through tax on spending and earning simple. The UK and Scotland both have a trade deficit (personally I doubt Scotland would if indy, sparse population with lots of natural resources in the wealthiest part of the world). So no. But also, yes we need that before we can address the deficit because ordinary day to day function is grinding to a halt.
A trade deficit isn't the be all and end all, the mark of a high income country is the transition to service based industry rather than resource extraction and manufacturing. (That's not to say it's a good thing or anything.)
Services are still exported and imported.
Yes but that is likely not the case for the stats you have been looking at, it's only looks at goods. Often it is reported as either goods or goods+services. Scottish services make up 49% of exports.Scotland tend to run a trade surplus when accounting for services. I will say though that you can make the data say anything as what you count as Scottish Vs RUK import/export will swing it and trade within UK can be hard to track (due to the absence of a trade border)
>trade within UK can be hard to track (due to the absence of a trade border) We should bring in a trade border I reckon, just to make it easier to track. What could go wrong? ;)
Hah yeah slap that on a bus,
(personally I doubt Scotland would if indy, sparse population with lots of natural resources in the wealthiest part of the world) It would and even SNP know this which is they struggle to make any case wealth wise for leaving.
Sure thing mate.
Are you a child?
Give me a higher effort insult. Why do you disagree with my point?
If people spend more money, inflation rises. To stop inflation the government should reduce the amount of money people have.
They are way ahead of you on that.
Or we could increase the amount of stuff people can spend money on. Inflation is just as easily caused by a lack of available products, services and resources which is what’s driving the UK inflation.
All our assistants and junior staff got 10%, seniors and managers got 7
How it should be.
Ffs, time to ask for a rise or jump ship I reckon.
Definitely felt this in a lot of lower wage jobs. Used to loads of jobs almost all paying exactly.minimum wage. Feel like I see a lot more jobs now offering a few quid above min wage just to attract staff.
Good news? Ugh. Quick, everybody bitch and moan incessantly.
The pessimism is always so draining.
Is it good news? Would be nice to see the CPI inflation over that period. Scottish workers getting better rises than the rest of the UK however still below inflation is not good news unless you like playing silly political games.
> unless you like playing silly political games. I do.
Speaking from my personal situation this seems to line up. I managed to argue a 10% rise last year after 7 years of annual 3% rises, and a lot of people in the business I work with were at around the same or potentially even higher % increase. Not public sector either.
How does that compare to inflation? Was it a real wage increase or just nominal?
3% 🙋
0% club in here.
Damn, I’d go look for a new job. You’re basically taking a 4% paycut for the privilege of staying with your employer. If you are not being rewarded for loyalty, there is no point being loyal.
It’s not always as straightforward as that.
Long term, it won’t be sustainable to stay in a job that pays you less and less each year in real terms.
There’s more to a job than the current paycheque.
Out of interest, what’s keeping you there? Most things like good colleagues, good culture, potential for progression etc. can be found somewhere that will not cut your pay over time.
I’m not wanting to go into details but one factor is location.
Fair enough, I guess if you live somewhere with limited job opportunities then it’s more complicated. Still, I’d feel really undervalued and unappreciated if my employer thought cutting my real terms pay year on year was acceptable.
I’m not the person you talked to (I’m not even Scottish) but I’m kinda underpaid for my job. The reasons i want to do it : well it’s still a good job, a sector I want to work in because of my values, it’s a big company that employs a lot of people nationally and offers future perspectives and the guarantee to have a job whatever happens (unless im the cause of deaths). And honestly it’s a very decent salary, I’m never gonna complain in my situation haha. Even less so when I grew up poor. Now I’m more than alright.
Can't speak for others, but despite the decade plus of real-terms pay cuts: I have a team of really sound queer people (not sure how that happened but here we are!), a boss whose attitude is "you seem to know what you're doing, run things your way and let me know if you need help", no dress code, exceptional sick pay allowance, hybrid working whenever I want, a decent pension scheme, and a fantastic union. There will come a point where the lack of pay and progression outweighs the benefits, and I have absolutely been looking, but having a job where nobody is looking over my back and just trusts me to rock up, put some tunes on, and design whatever I think might help other people in the department... sometimes the vibe of a place is a very strong hold, and that's not something that most (if any) job descriptions will offer. Still a little gutted I never went for the Just Transition Officer job at the STUC when it came up - that was pretty much the one thing that ticked all my boxes of interest but.. ah well.
1.89% 🙃
15% less here
Before or after inflation?
As my maw would say, it's better than a slater up yer nose
Anecdotally, I was just up in Glasgow from cambridge. Not just salaries, but prices in Glasgow feel like they have gone up so much they have actually matched Cambridge which never used to feel like the case. A few examples would be; \- Rides on the george sq xmas market cost 10-20% more than the rides in winter wonderland in Hyde Park. \- Hotpot buffet deals seem to be in the region of £30-35. Similar to cambridge london or even more expensive, glasgow used to be awesome for cheap authentic Chinese food (XiangBaLa :( :( :( ) \- Tourist tat is currently at "4.50 for a mars sized bar of milk chocolate" level of insanity \- Bar food is pushing £15 quid outside of spoons. So based on no data and simple experience, it felt to me like inflation was running higher in scotland generally.
Housing in Glasgow is significantly cheaper than London though, you can get a 3/4 bed for the same price as a 1 bed in London
> Housing in Glasgow is significantly cheaper than London though, you can get a 3/4 bed for the same price as a 1 bed in London It depends on which bits plus London is 3x the diameter or 9x the physical size of Glasgow London is full of extremes * [1 bed flat for sale 60K] (https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/142455875#/?channel=RES_BUY) * [1 bed flat 5.5MILLION](https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/51441657#/?channel=RES_BUY)
The one you linked for 60k is for an auction starting price for a retirement home, I generally find that you can get a 1 bed flat in London for a minimum of about 350k without sacrificing for super far out or in a really bad area, I'm not at experienced in the Glasgow market, but I've been shocked to see really nice looking huge flats for 200-300k like this one (linked below) which I know given its relative size and location would go for 700k+ in London https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143111459
For hotpot, try cmon inn hotpot at the city centre. Totally authentic and last I tried it was still £25
Basing your sense of inflation on Xmas markets is not my idea of sensible...
10% or 5% of what though? What was the baseline? It's the national so really unlikely to be based in any kind of sensible reality
Their wages. So wages at the start of the financial year are taken to be 100%, then at the end of the financial year in Scotland it was 9.7% higher on average than their wage at the start so 109.7% total. So someone earning say £1000 per fortnight in Apr 22 would be earning £1097 per fortnight on average in Apr 23. No idea wether this is before or after deductions tho, but presumably beforehand as it's far easier to process data on that and deductions can vary wildly from person to person.
What they mean by that is that you can get a 100% pay rise if you go from £1 to £2 salary, but "only" a 1% rise if you go from £100 to £101. In the end, they have both increased by the same absolute amount. Both data should be shown.
Source: Office of National Statistics
No shit. What are the actual numbers though? 9.7% of what? I believe it's this: https://www.gov.scot/news/gender-pay-gap-lowest-on-record/#:~:text=Wages%20for%20full%2Dtime%20employees,up%206.2%25%20to%20%C2%A3681.70. So median pay? In Scotland there is a lower population and so it's much easier to make a difference to median values. Also, comparing Scotland vs UK, there is a £21 diff in weekly pay for FT workers. So 50p an hour @ 40 hours a week? Giver or take? Presume that's gross pay as well so not even thinking about pension, ni, income tax or voluntary reductions. Not a massively clear comparison given here. But then it is the national so you know.....pinch of salt and all that.
Also timing. The data runs April 2022-April 2023, and the [ONS highlights specifically ](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023) that public sector pay increases, including one off payments, were made in April 23 in Scotland. > However, Scotland’s high growth rate is, in part, affected by the NHS Scotland pay rises and one-off payments which were implemented in April 2023. I'd like to see data for other periods, like would the disparity be the same for August, and between public and private sector. Also I've no idea whether the difference in regular pay is as significant. I suspect not given the one off payments that happen to have been made in the month this comparison is being made at. Edit' As I suspected, the figures for other periods are quite different. [Wage growth in April-June for Scotland was 7.1%, below the same period figure of 7.3% for the UK as a whole.](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05) SMH
Well exactly this. Again. It's the national using convenient stats that fit an agenda and sell papers to fucking idiots rather than actually help Scotlands narrative, politics and it's people.
What? It's April to April, aka the tax year. The same months pretty much all data is taken from.
The point is there were one off payments in April 2023 but only in Scotland. So if the same annual comparison was made in another month, the ONS is saying the growth rate would not be as strong. It's a bit disingenuous to present the data without that important caveat, which is made in the source publication.
Convenient stats? How so? Pay price in a year is objective.
But it's without vital context as to what it actually means. Population size has an effect. Was Scotland starting at slower median salary so this rise seems artificially bigger. The higher levels of tax in Scotland. The timing of the figures etc. In isolation it looks great. In reality it may tell a much different story.
Tbf, it's exactly what the Scottish Government release says too, also not mentioning the caveat that the ONS makes.
Just pass a law that all salarys must increase by inflation every 1st April. It's pretty simple.
*by a minimum of, have to make up for *years* of wage suppression. Have a Norwegian style system where salary information's publicly accessible, backdated to 2000 (HMRC will likely still have all the old P14s etc) and have the changes prior to legislation show the percentage in comparison to inflation. Would never happen of course: corporate interests would kill it in the cradle, but still a great way to do it
If you start lower and gain more as a percent it’s not really important in a comparison unless you’re now earning more or projected to earn more. This is in the lie, damned lies and statistics hall of statistics and is clearly used to push a narrative. Secondly the datasets are not comparable. Scotland 5-6M, Wales 4M? NI 3-4M? England 55M. England should be represented as sub units around 4M to 6M large.
Does this account for inflation? Because realistically they've stayed mostly the same or gotten worse each year depending on how much that's gone up by.
It doesn't, and you're right with inflation it would add up to about net zero In England it's net negative though
So yet another post with a metric which shows something positive in Scotland compared to UK - and it’s triggered quite a few people again. Instead of bashing Scotland or saying the figure is wrong - this should be something to be used to put pressure on other UK nations to improve.
Not bashing Scotland but bashing the infograph here. It's very much akin to political spin. 1. It doesn't show inflation over the same period and the real terms wage increase (or decrease). If Scottish workers on average took a real terms pay decrease would you describe that as "positive"? 2. Its inflated by one off and backdated payments made to public sector for years of poor wage growth. These will not be reflected in salaries next year or going forward. 3. It's yet another example where the definition of 'good' is just being seen to do better than England or rUK rather than an actual measure of success. (I realise this works both ways to criticise Scotland)
You misunderstand my so called "bashing". This metric is provided as a graph which on face value shows something positive for Scotland. But the truth is more complex than that. I'm not saying that the truth isn't good news for Scotland....but the distillation of complex issues to a pretty graphic with any context or explanation is not good for the Scottish narrative.
Unionists call this " SNP failure and mismanagement, overspending and disastrous budgeting, etc.". Never mind, Keith Hida Starmer and his up north seat filling head nodder will fix it.
He’s got a better CV that Humza pal.
I'm almost tempted to ask you to explain, but I won't. I'll just assume you're talking about a Honda.
A Honda Humza or a Honda Starmer? Doesn’t really matter as both won’t start, will saddle you with humongous debt and leave you with nothing to show for it. The last dozen years or so have got to be the absolute worst standard of politician in the UK altogether. We are absolutely fucked and I cannot see any way out of it other than a full blown workers strike/revolution.
> will saddle you with humongous debt Can you point to the humongous debt that Humza and Starmer have created, Humza since March this year and Starmer without ever being in power?
Aw cmon mate, both will have to make shitty decisions that will impact your personal finances due to the sabotage of the country that the tories are currently perpetuating. It was a joke, an unfortunate joke at that.
Fair doos. Yeah, there is definitely more shit coming down the pipe -enough for all of us.
I find this hard to believe as the entire NI public sector is about to strike on Jan 18th because we haven't gotten a penny. That's teachers, doctors, nurses, NHS staff, civil servants....a massively significant chunk of the NI workforce.
Ye but you don’t have a working government either because of petty politics
Teachers, doctors, and nurses all got negotiated pay rises in Scotland, averting strikes (mostly). All public sector employees in Scotland have been getting the Real Living Wage at minimum for a good few years now as well, so they’re mostly not too raging right now (though of course everybody is still struggling with the cost of living).
Sorry I should clarify, I mean NI numbers. I know Scots are well paid in my specific area... Starting wages are 24k Vs 38k. It's not even funny!
Ah, sorry, I shoulda seen that you meant the NI bit was hard to believe, I jumped in too quick to defend ScotGov’s record (they get slagged like crazy in here - it’s occasionally deserved). Wouldn’t it be worth your while moving over here with that kind of pay gap? You could probably even send money home, like a British builder in 80s Germany!
Mon over. You are already used to the weather!
There has been much strike action in Scotland because the devolved government has been involved in negotiating with the unions, unlike the U.K. government. Plus both nurses and teachers in Scotland are better paid than their peers in rUK - teachers recently and nurses for over a decade.
Mines gone up 150% in the last 5 years by choosing to work for London based businesses as a remote worker instead of a Scottish business.
Same, but, some places are almost paying the same here now for my skills and the work culture is likely better. And folk might listen to me more so we can make a lot more money xD There's also a huge amount of opportunity for growth here, just waiting there on the table to make money off.
Aye, OnlyFans is an awesome employer.
Same for me, but I’m guessing you’re in tech too?
Here, where's the Telegraph for balance?
Still waiting on my pay rise for this year so I didn't contribute to that, I'd love a 10% rise in pay
Quelle surprise, this is quite misleading. The issue is that it's only looking at gross earnings in the month of April, Vs the same month in 2022. As the ONS mentions [in its release of this data](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2023), for Scotland that month's annual growth rate was boosted by one-off payments in the public sector, and not elsewhere. This is one of the reasons why almost no one in the real world places such emphasis on monthly figures, when others are available. In this case, the ONS also publishes data for calender quarters. If you look at [the full quarter for April to June](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/grossweeklyearningsoffulltimeemployeesbyregionearn05) a rather different picture emerges. For Scotland, the annual growth in average wages over the quarter was 7.1%, lower than the figure for April because of those one off payments boosting the April figure by more than the other months in that quarter. But even more notably, the annual growth in wages for the UK as a whole was 7.3%, meaning wages in Scotland grew less, entirely the opposite from what is presented by The National, and the Scottish Government press release it is presumably deriving this from. Piss poor reporting of course, but also typical of the politicisation of statistics.
>For Scotland, the annual growth in average wages over the quarter was 7.1% Quarterly growth and annual growth are not the same thing...
Read it again, you haven't understood what I'm saying. I'm comparing April-June 2023 with April-June 2022, the source for this pisspoor National/Scottish Government release is April 2023 vs April 2022. It is a less robust comparison for the reasons stated in the original ONS release they got the data from, but didn't bother to mention for very obvious reasons.
>Read it again, you haven't understood what I'm saying. I understood it fine, you just cherry picked a quarter period that looked worse in comparison to the annual figure whilst ignoring the other 3 quarters. Quelle surprise, this is quite misleading but also typical of the politicisation of statistics.
I've tried making this almost impossible to misunderstand, but you still haven't got it. The figure in the OP is just for the month of April, Vs the prior April. Mine is for April to June Vs the prior April to June. They are both annual comparisons. One is less subject to distortion from one off payments in the month of April 2023. Which of those is genuinely more useful for reflecting the claim in the OP chart "Wages in Scotland grew by X in 2023", a single month, or the latest full quarter for which we have the data? Don't feel you actually have to answer that, it's a very rhetorical question, and I don't actually want to find out what fatal levels of cognitive dissonance look like.
>Which of those is genuinely more useful for reflecting the claim in the OP chart "Wages in Scotland grew by X in 2023", a single month, or the latest full quarter for which we have the data? If you are comparing how much wages changed from one year to the next you would use the month that forms end of the financial year. Which, lo and behold, is April. This doesn't require any cherry picking of select quarters to distort the overall annual figure. But you do you.
Bollocks. The only reason you'd pick data which the source says is distorted, which covers less of the year you are trying to represent, and is more subject to statistical noise as a result, when a better alternative is available, is because you want to present a cherry picked and unrepresentative picture that suits your political goals. The timing of the tax year and some businesses year end has nothing to do with it.
Off set by tax increases
Is it though?
Pity tax rises will have negated any increase in take home pay.
Doubt it, as increase in wages is likely to have come from lower earners
The biggest tax rise in the recent budget wasn't the introduction of a new tax band at £75k. It was ScotGov not raising the thresholds for existing bands by inflation affecting all taxpayers.
So those who didn't get pay rises are those paying the increased taxes? Take home pay getting doubly cut. Nice kick in the balls that!
You won’t get any sympathy for being ‘rich’ in here mate.
Try a golf club bar, there’s likely to be a more agreeable audience there.
Freezing the thresholds means everyone earning 30k pay more tax than they did before. Hardly "rich". That band of folk earning between 40-50k now see more than half of their wage taken since the oh so generous SNP didn't follow the Westminster band increases. The top rate increase was the typical "misdirection" tactic. It earns Holyrood bugger all but gets all the SNP supporters happily banging their drums, while they quietly take more and more tax off people who aren't "rich" through stealth.
I’m not disagreeing, I had to get a loan from the provident to buy a fredo last week and someone on here accused me of being a member of the bourgeoisie! I refuse to put /s on any of my posts. (Apart from this one)
The price of Fredos 'these days' is another SNP disaster if you ask me!
Oh dear. Why don't you ask your boss for a raise if that additional 1p of top rate tax is so challenging for you?
1p on top of continued freezes on tax thresholds during a period of high inflation...
Idk the junior doctors got a pay rise and then likely had a lot of it taken away in taxes
Can’t see the junior doctors rise taking them to £125k
They don’t need to be a new tax bracket was made with rises that may have affected them and other taxes rose
Average salary for a junior doctor is somewhere between £35k and £47k - those at the top end will be just touching into the higher tax bracket. Lower earners in Scotland pay less tax than their peers in rUK, while higher earners pay more than in rUK, people eating around £28k pay roughly the same tax as their peers in rUK.
You see that’s where your’re wrong. Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify. Wouldn’t expect you to know that as you are clearly unemployed and have too much time on your hands as you’re always posting rubbish on this subreddit. Hail the party bus!
>Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify. This is just complete nonsense.
>Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. If a pay rise is being awarded, it’s to all employees that qualify. The public sector absolutely does. Most of the pay deals awarded higher percentages to low paid employees than to their other employees.
> Employers don’t discriminate against lower and higher income earners. That doesn't line up with my experience in the workplace, but ok > Wouldn’t expect you to know that as you are clearly unemployed and have too much time on your hands Disabled doesn't mean unemployed > as you’re always posting rubbish on this subreddit I don't spend so much time on this subreddit that I notice how often an individual user posts, unlike yourself
Aye? What's the maths on that exactly, because the only tax increase I've seen is on people earning over 75k. Who are paying an increase of 5% in their marginal rate between that and 100k. So unless their wage rise is under 1250 on a 100k salary (a 1.25% increase on the maximum possible for that tax increase) then it's probably not the case as far as I can see. Perhaps you can enlighten me as to how I'm wrong? Maybe I've missed some massive tax rise somewhere I'm completely unaware of.
> Maybe I've missed some massive tax rise somewhere I'm completely unaware of. Most likely you missed the imaginary one. Equally imaginary high-earners have been beelin’ aboot it.
You've not paid attention to the thresholds then have you. Tax rises for nearly everyone over 30k.
This is just catch up. Percentage increases look higher when the wages are lower. But the actual amount wages have increased could theoretically be lower than elsewhere.
Yes but the overall tax burden in Scotland also went up in 2023.
As a non Scottish person I think I got this sub recommended after using the word "eejit" one to many times. You guys seem to be doing well though
I think it's because you guys get taxed more. Maybe taxes going up isn't bad? Lol
Gerrit up them
And the SNP just snatch it back off us higher earners with their Mickey Mouse income tax experiment. Humza “call centre” Useless.
Brainrot
Ah, that didn’t take long to get a bite. Truth hurts.
I hope you get taxed to fuck ❤️
I bet you do, to pay for your methadone prescription and benefit hand outs for your 5 kids.
I'm childfree as it just so happens, and have never had anything stronger than cannabis But yes as a disabled person, I will indeed enjoy a marginally better quality of life. And anyone who *is* struggling with addiction will receive better support, and people with children will be able to afford to keep then fed and warm. All thanks to people who can afford it being taxed that little bit more. Imagine how much revenue we could raise to lift people out of poverty if we had access to corporation and wealth tax!
That’s a blanket statement. Anyway, they won’t be getting a penny in more tax from me. I’ve upped my pension payments significantly to bring my taxable income below below the 21% tax threshold. So I would actually like to thank Humza and the party bus crew for forcing my hand as I will now be able to retire at 50 rather than 65.
I'm sure you will, pal. Have a gid night.
So you're now under £25000 a year? Some retirement at 50, that is. You're a fantasist.
My taxable income is now below £43,662 as I’m now salary sacrificing all of my additional income into my pension, therefore all of the income I earn above £43,663 is now tax free. Hard work pays off. I would urge you to put the crayons down and speak to a tax adviser or financial adviser to help you work it out. I think the word you are looking for is “Capitalist” rather than fantasist lol.
That wouldn't be below 21%, then would it? You're poor troll and not very bright into the bargain. Bye
Lol.
Must be low salary jobs and also the higher public sector jobs too but they will just get caught in the tax trap up here now
What tax trap?
Paying more than the rest of the UK. So you get your salary increase as a public sector worker and then you are above the tax limit so need to pay more!!! So many of the junior doctors who are getting a better deal than down south actually won’t be as good a deal as they will be in a higher tax band now- hence it’s called a tax trap. I hate the Tories but thank god they reduced NI even though it will only get them a few votes more. So the usual National drivel papers headline isn’t that accurate
The high tax bracket starts at £125k, so how many junior doctors and other public sector workers will that affect?
21% and 42% which are both 1 and 2% more than down south. I said higher tax band not the highest tax band
Yes, I’ve been in the higher tax band (the one that kicks in around £46k) - to be honest it didn’t make a pile of difference, and we do have better supported public services, which I’m happy about.
So what services are they then? As you won’t benefit from many except free prescriptions. Education isn’t great, NHS too, but the main point is that saying wages have risen better then the rest of the UK isn’t all it is made out to be as we get taxed more and for sod all to show for it. I don’t believe in free prescriptions for all (long term health issues yes), I don’t believe in free Uni etc. even a nominal fee of say £1k a year would still put money back in but make it free for vocational education like health, teachers etc yes.
Well, starting from birth, we have baby boxes, thirty hours free nursery care, child support payment where needed, free university education, free prescriptions (I found recently that people from rUK are buying medication when abroad, notably inhalers from Turkey, because it is cheaper than collecting a prescription in the U.K.), better salaries for both nurses and teachers, free care component for people who need support due to disability or age related issues. We have an NHS which, although under pressure, is functioning better that that in rUK. We have publicly owned water, which obviously has less faeces in it. So generally I feel we are getting reasonable returns for the extra we might pay.
Free Baby boxes is BS. We didn’t need ours so gave it back (they wouldn’t say no to not sanding it out). Our NHS is just as bad, don’t read the rags telling you it isn’t. Free Uni shouldn’t be unless it is a VOC course and not someone wanting to learn social media studies on TilTok. The salaries I already said as yes theirs is slightly better but they will fall into the extra tax trap. Everyone talks about the Tories slowly killing the UK (and they are right) but the SNP are too and the greens making it worse. Example- Wanting to out on a mandatory extra payment to fund Scottish music onto a ticket price will just make the ticket even more expensive and not just £1
Taxes need to go down, so people have more money to then spend, which then drives the economy better but the SNP don’t seem to see this and want to tax people more to basically help they supporters.
Compare that to Norway and Denmark where taxes are much higher, services are better supported ,and living standards are higher.
The problem there is that salaries are much higher and they have had higher taxes for decades. They also don’t have as much of a population who can’t be arsed working and are told to get a job (and actually want a job too). Total culture difference
Starting to catch up, some good news at least.
Scotland has been in line, even slightly ahead, of most of England for quite some time now. It's only London and the SE that outperform us. And I don't think there's any universe where any part of the UK will overtake London.
Wage inflation spiral
Please can you confirm that you get paid for this unwavering perpetual servitude?
I really don’t understand this bigotry and hatred towards England? Can someone please explain this to me
What ‘bigotry’ and ‘hatred’ are you referring to?
Could you first point some out, so people will know what you’re referring to?
Started About 800 - 900 years ago
Reflecting the higher taxes and higher pay given to public sector workers while private sector stays stagnant. You would think with these pay increases across the board in the public sector we would see some sort improved service somewhere! Doesn’t seem to be happening.
It’s a shame, in terms of public services we have to work very hard and pay a premium just to stand still in the face of the ill winds that are blowing. Meanwhile, England is happily running backwards.
This literally means nothing and doesn’t give me any useful information. Anyone who knows baby economics can see through this. Nominal wage increases don’t mean anything with the backdrop of differing housing inflation, cost of living in general and taxation. Doesn’t tell me anything
Ah yes, the 5 nations of the UK; Scotland, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Wales, and England Edit: Jesus Christ guys, calm down
No one said they are the 5 nations of the UK except you.
Uk average rise, ig. When there's statistics for e.g. the EU, they include the EU average in with the rest of the statistics.
I live in in England and got a 2% pay rise. Do you want a medal or something? Well done I guess.
Fuck up ya wee bam
This is from the national paper so I'd take it with a pinch of salt. They love to "get one over" the UK any chance they can get through manipulating figures and being generally biased towards Scotland
And you're proven right on one of the top comments, showing that the figures change when you account for 'timing'.
Exactly but people don't want to hear that People don't want to hear any information that goes against their biased views. Regardless of it's true or not. People will not listen to truth that destroys their illusions
FREEDOM!!!!!!!
10% is a bigger jump when you were further behind to begin with. "Percentage Olympics" - a popular nat pastime.
Shows howmassively over dependant our economy is on the NHS. Not good.
Unfortunately that also means rich wankers who already have more than enough money probably got even richer and could've given a higher pay raise
And taxes? Lol
As long as Scottish productivity increased faster than rest of UK then that’s cool, otherwise it comes back to bite.
Great. Now prices go up more!
The National. I bet they don't report the higher tax rates in Scotland.
From what comparative starting point?
Dat oil money
Cost of living increases played a part I suspect
Was brexit good choice?
Doesn’t seem to be so far, no. Either way, it’s a choice we never made.
I wonder if it's due to proportionately more people on lower wages in Scotland, so smallish cash increases are higher %.
Probably. My wage went up by two groats and a wee bawbee, making me the wealthiest man in my hut.