Fat cats get the cream

Australia’s public servants don’t like being called fat cats.

But they certainly have got the cream, in the past year’s wage stakes.

Global crisis? What crisis?

While the financial world was collapsing about them, Australia’s public sector workers managed to chalk up a 4.6 per cent pay rise, over the 12 months to the end of September.

They even managed to get an extra 1.4 per cent in the three months to the end of September.

This shows up in original Labour Price Index figures, that the Australian Bureau of Statistics released today.

Workers, trapped in the private sector, could not match their performance.

But they still managed a substantial pay rise, of 0.8 per cent, in the September quarter.

And a rise of 3.1 per cent in the 12 months to the end of September.

In both cases, these rises are surprising.

Many businesses either sacked, or put many workers on short hours, during the crisis,

There were significant retrenchment programs in the public sector, too.

The fact that hourly wage rates have risen – quite substantially – in the same time has largely escaped public attention.

Until now.