Police Officers £1,000s worse off
15 June 2022
Police officers are £1,000s worse off than they were 10 years ago as a result of wages failing to keep pace with prices.
Sgts/PCs inflation-adjusted pay is £5,595 a year lower than a decade ago, according to a TUC report.
Steve James, Chairman of Gloucestershire Police Federation, said: “Sadly this comes as no surprise. This report echoes the data that has consistently been put to Government by the Police Federation across multiple annual police pay reviews.
“That data has shown that a majority of officers have had real term pay cuts of around 16% over the time this Government – at times with the Liberal Democrats – has been in power. With no pay rise in 2021 and inflation running at over 4%, that cut is now even deeper, and the squeeze on offices finances ever tighter.
“Starting pay for new officers too, is now barely higher than the new Living Wage level. In a time where officers, like so many others, are facing a cost of living crisis, this position is untenable and unacceptable.
“Despite the frequent empty rhetoric, this clearly demonstrates the lack of value that this Government place on the work officers do and the dangers they face. Over this period, as the cuts from austerity policy have bitten, officers have consistently been told to do more with less.
“Not only can officers no longer trust that they will be paid fairly, but with the Government’s repeated decisions not to abide by the findings of the independent Police Remuneration Review Body, they cannot trust that even negotiation and consideration of pay is a fair process. Government must ensure that the PRRB is reformed as a truly fair, independent and binding pay review body if officers are to have any of that trust restored.
“More urgently, in this year’s pay review, Government must look not only to award a pay rise that matches the rate of inflation so as not further worsen the hardship faced by officers, but to start rebuilding the wage deficit that officers have suffered for many years.”
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