This report calls for a Top Pay Commission to 'name and shame' public sector organisations that pay excessive salaries to their top officials. The Commission would produce principles and benchmarks to be followed by pay setters and would be able to launch investigations where these were breached. PASC believes a Top Pay Commission would ensure greater coherence to the setting of top pay across the public sector. PASC concludes that massive increases in private sector executive salaries over the last ten years have led to smaller, but sometimes still very large, increases at the top of the public sector. This 'contagion effect' has meant that the highest salaries in both sectors have increased much faster than average earnings. PASC also identified a number of weaknesses with current arrangements for setting pay in the public sector. These include variable levels of transparency, tensions between devolved and centralised pay setting systems, a perception that some public servants have been rewarded for failure and a tendency for some parts of the public sector to compete against others for a small number of experienced candidates, rather than growing talent internally. Some of the Committee's other key recommendations include: a call for better human resource management across the public sector, to ensure talent is promoted from within and failure is not rewarded; recommendations that would lead to publication of salaries and bonuses across the public sector more in line with the requirements placed on listed companies; and a proposal to ensure all public sector executive reward packages are drawn up either by independent bodies or remuneration committees with a majority of independent members

Case studies of Singapore, Korea, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Argentina show that in those countries which adjusted unsuccessfully real earnings declined sharply, often with a further negative impact on output.

This volume, based on the proceedings of a symposium held at the OECD, provides a wide ranging analysis of what pay flexibility actually implies, how it is developing in different countries and different parts of the public sector, and what it is ...

In almost every liberal democratic society, an issue that is a topic of constant and passionate public discussion is how much that country's ministers, legislators, senior civil servants, and senior judges should be paid. Paying Our High Public Officials examines the political discourse concerning this question in 17 liberal democracies. Based on many hundreds of parliamentary debates, newspaper articles, speeches, as well as reports by think tanks and high commissions of state, the book identifies seven central arguments that occur in all these societies, translates them into the language of analytical philosophy, and then rigorously evaluates them. This approach contributes to a better understanding of this controversy and may result in better-justified and more legitimate conclusions concerning which policy to adopt.

Bringing together over fifty leading global experts, this Research Handbook provides a state-of-the-art overview of research findings regarding Human Resource Management (HRM) in the public sector. Original chapters provide useful insights from two different disciplines: public administration and HRM. They illustrate that the public context of organisations matters and discuss research findings detailing how this plays out in practice.

The Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) was asked for an interim report, ahead of the 2010 Budget, on senior remuneration in the public sector. It is critical to ensure public confidence in this area: confidence that high salaries are not being paid where they are not merited; and, where they are paid, confidence that they are justified by rigorous processes and evidence of sustained high performance. The SSRB proposals are intended to make a significant contribution to providing reassurance. The public sector is complex and so are the arrangements for pay and it has been difficult to gather comprehensive and consistent data. But it is estimated that over 25,000 people in the public sector are earning over £100,000 a year and many over £150,000. The first step is to provide clear rules through a code of practice, and this report includes a draft code which should be opened to consultation. The SSRB would like to see the code finalised by the end of July 2010 with a view to implementation by the end of 2010. Implementation would be the responsibility of the bodies in each sector. The SSRB also advocates developing a structure of pay ranges for senior public sector pay. A set of reference ranges would provide organisations or clusters of organisations with a pay framework that is currently lacking. Part C of the report details progress on a review of chief executive pay in Non Departmental Public Bodies. The methodology used could be applied more widely.