Deputies pay rise aborted by P&R

Friday 15 January 2021

"Enormous" financial pressures on public funds have led to the cancellation of States members' scheduled pay rises.

An increase in line with inflation was due to be automatically applied in May, following the previous States’ decision on future pay last year.

Policy & Resources Committee President Peter Ferbrache said it would be inappropriate to increase Deputies' salaries at a time when most States' employees pay has been frozen and private businesses hit hard by the effects of the pandemic. 

“Many in our community are facing huge financial pressure and uncertainty, very few States’ employees will see any increase this year and we all need to do what we can to preserve our limited public finances," he said.

Pictured: Pay award decisions for the States' 15 pay groups. Any 2020 pay award with an * next to it has been decided by the current Policy & Resources Committee and those without an asterisk were decided earlier in the year by the previous committee.

"In these extraordinary times, I’m sure all my political colleagues will be in full agreement that deputies’ pay should not be increased this year.”

All States employees will receive pay awards for 2020, it has been confirmed, however the purse strings will be tightened this year as the island's largest employer is already spending more money on wages than it can afford.

For 2021, most employees will not see an increase, with some exceptions. Agenda for Change staff will receive a further 5% increase, while the ‘Public Sector Employees’ pay group - which includes many of the States' lowest paid staff such as manual workers - will get an inflationary increase of 2.4%.