Originally Posted by
Al R
If you've been in 18 months and if you're having a good time and if you're making £20,000 whilst your mates are on street corners, 1% pa delta is neither here nor there and probably isn't a big factor. So, to an extent, he could be correct.
You're probably right, and it's most likely the more senior and experienced personnel who feel as though pay is an indicator of how they are progressing in life who will feel it the most. Especially if trying to balance mortgages and other expected commitments associated with getting older.
But if, as I think they are trying to do, the demographic make up if the Forces are adjusted so the composition is mostly junior staff on short term contracts vice full careers, then going forward pay will become less of an issue if getting out from a desk and doing something interesting is more important. In fact, if you follow that logic chain to the end, we hit a point where pay features very little in the arguments, with the result there is little imperative to do much about it if many personnel are perceived to be happy. Then we end up with permanently lowered pay relative to what it might otherwise had been in a full career organisation.