COMPARABILITY AND THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE
| Date | 01 March 1983 |
| Published date | 01 March 1983 |
| Author | Peter Cappelli |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1983.tb00119.x |
COMPARABILITY AND THE BRITISH CIVIL SERVICE'
PETER
CAPPELLI*
A~ER
25 years
of
service, the system
of
pay research in the non-industrial Civil Service
has been suspended and the Megaw Commission has issued their recommendations
concerning alternative methods
of
pay determination. The occasion
of
this report may
be an opportune time
to
examine the operation
of
the pay research system, the
continual conflict with incomes policies that brought about its demise, and the merits
of the alternative suggested by Megaw.
There has been a long-standing debate over the principles that governments should
use to determine the pay
of
their employees (for the best discussion
of
comparisons in
Government employment and the arguments for and against them, see Clegg 1961).
The main reason for this debate may be that the conventional market explanations for
wages which at least provide
a
theoretical basis for wage determination in the private
sector are not always relevant in the public sector. Where output is not marketed, as
for government services, it is difficult
to
derive a meaningful relationship for labour
demand; without labour demand, it is impossible
to
calculate a market wage. And to
say, for example, that the Government should simply 'pay as little as necessary
to
fill
its jobs' merely begs the question of what the quality
of
the workforce should
be-given that quality is not independent of price.
Perhaps more importantly, the Government's role in pay determination is sensitive
to
political pressures as well as market forces,
a
complication that private employers
do
not
face. There are pressures from unions
for
higher pay, pressures from other
employers to set an affordable example, and pressures from taxpayers for lower
government
costs.
Because
of
these differences, the Government has sought a method
for determining Civil Service pay that is fair to all parties. The methods used have
changed over time, and the path that led to the system of pay research was far from
straight.
DEVELOPMENT
OF
PAY RESEARCH
The Select Committee
of
1830 noted, prophetically, that
There are probably few subjects open
to
more varieties
of
opinion than the precise amount
of
salary suited
to
any office
of
Government.
Since 1839, pay in the Civil Service has been set in a number
of
different ways,
reflecting these different opinions. Originally, Government officials were paid
piece
rates which varied across departments and which were applied to the volume of work
that each official produced. This fee system gradually died out, however, and in 1828
the first argument in favour
of
salary scales was presented by the Select Committee on
Public Expenditure as described by
Sir
Norman Chester (1981).
It
supported the
notion by the Select Committee (1827)
of
basing pay on outside comparisons:
First find
out
what the (salaries) are in commercial and other establishments and then examine
whether more talent and trust are required
...
and
if
so.
then make the salaries in the Public
Office proportionately higher.
*Massachusetts Institute
of
Technology
33
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