But an interesting attempt to give a sense of scale:
AXA also calculated that a woman in her mid-20s working in the private sector would have to contribute almost a quarter of her annual salary every year to get a pension comparable with a public counterpart.
Given that pensions are simply delayed compnesation that means that public sector wages are, by this measure alone, 25% higher than private sector.
OK, to be more precise, 25% minus whatever pension contribution that public sector workers have to make themselves. Different schemes have different amounts but for some reason 6% sticks in the mind. So 19% then.
That’s too simple. The public sector employee gets guarantees of index-linked future income regardless of investment performance. The private sector employee gets no such guarantee.
The existence of that pension guarantee is worth money.
Plus the public sector worker will have a much higher take home pay as well.
And the public sector worker can often wangle early retirement without actuarial discount.
And don’t forget the value of their lump sum payment on retirement.