Wonder where the pay rise went

[ArthurR]

Here's the answer, even my pension went down.


British defence officials received £130million in bonuses while troops wages were frozen | Daily Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3886270/British-defence-officials-received-130million-bonuses-troops-wages-frozen.html)

[Jimlad1]

Its classic diversionary tactics. About 10 years ago the then Chancellor hived off a chunk of the annual MOD pay bill and made it 'performance related' primarily because it made it non consolidated and thus not liable for a pension.

Ever since then, a not insignificant chunk of the annual MOD pay budget is hived off, and awarded in a variety of ways to the top 25% or so of staff as determined by the performance system. Most awards are a few hundred quid at best.

Its not a bonus in bankers terms, it is instead a loathed and deeply political fix that CS despise, and would love to scrap. Its worth noting that the combination of NI rises, pension contribution increases and freezing of payscales means that most MOD CS are today taking home less per month than they did in 2010.

Trust me, this is nothing to do with the MOD CS getting rich (they are in fact very averagely paid at best), and everything to do with political expediency. Direct your fire at the politicians not the CS.

[Pontius Navigator]

Jimlad, also, not directly linked to the headline, but the CS Unions had also been adept as securing multi-year pay deals. I don't know the present situation but know we certainly benefited during falling inflation and the benefit of knowing what our pay would be 2-3-4 years ahead until the next pay round.

[Jimlad1]

PN - the last multi-year pay deal for MOD CS was in about 2008.

Since then its been linked to a maximum of 1% per year, and usually about 0.8%. In addition CS no longer progress up the pay spine in the way the military did (and still do?), so since 2010 you've gone up 1% per year linked to the amount you were earning in 2010, instead of 1% on a payspine increase of about 2.5%.

In practical terms this means many new entrants now earn more than long serving members of staff, and often junior grades can, and do, earn more than their seniors on appointment. This means many staff have had 6 years of deferred pay increases for seniority, and are earning 10-15% less than they should be had the pay spine progression occurred.


The reason this matters to the Mil is that I know many experienced staff, many of whom do highly skilled niche roles that requires years or decades of experience, are now walking away because the salary is no longer sustainable to look after their families. CS pay isn't ever going to make someone rich, but when its so patently failing to keep up with industry salaries, you can see why good people are jumping when they can, rather than hang around. This only makes things more difficult if your talent pool leaves, if the only people left are the ones who can't find employment outside...

[The Oberon]

The "scandal" of the CS bonus scheme crops up every year. Jimlad1 has it right, it was a way of paying performance related pay without it being consolidated into pensions etc. and yes, the CS are only on, at best, average salaries. To put things into perspective, I was a D grade engineer for 7 years and received an enhanced bonus every year, 4 years before I retired, I was asked if I would like to join a defence electronics company doing exactly the same job. My starting salary was £14,000 pa more than my CS one, including the enhanced bonus.