AMs and Pay

I have read many an article, blog and comment on the recent decision by the Assembly Commission on the advice of an independent committee to increase their wage by 8.2%.

This has led to inevitable calls of hypocrisy from a huge majority of the general population, especially those in the public sector. Considering the recent capping of public sector workers' increases in pay to 1.9% (including MP's), this criticism is quite understandable.

What frustrates me is that since the Assembly election of last year, there has been an increase in the workload of AMs. There are more committees that need to scrutinise LCO's and eventually legislation, a new Petitions committee and further plenary meetings. There will also be a further increase in the amount of time they will have to spend in these committees.

A counterargument made by Unions is that there have been huge increases in the workload of public service workers as well. This is probably true for most, but many have also seen huge increases in pay over the last decade, more notably those in the National Health Service. The vast majority of money invested into the NHS has gone into pay. Health workers have seen big pay increases while at the same time ripping off the taxpayer through overtime agency work.

I would argue that AMs do deserve this pay if the public expects competent people to stand for election. The Assembly is comparable to a Board of Directors at a multinational company, ensuring that the executive (the Welsh Assembly Government in this case) do their job properly for shareholders (i.e. the taxpayer). AMs are paid nothing like company directors, so were getting off reasonably cheaply (although the competence of some AMs is debatable).

Some Plaid members have announced that they will not accept they pay rise. This is understandable as they should show solidarity to their constituents, but I believe they should support the pay rise. It is, at the end of the day, fair.