The solution to strikes? Increase key workers’ pay by the same percentage as MPs’ wages

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It would have the added benefit of projecting thoughts of affordability back onto MPs’ pay, so that it is not a consideration exclusively for other workers (AFP/Getty)

The answer to nurses’ and other public sector workers’ pay issues is to link workers’ pay to that of those most prominent public sector employees – MPs.

Using 2010, the start of austerity, as datum, the identical percentage increase that MPs have enjoyed to date could be applied to the pay of nurses and others. That would be visibly fair and would have the added benefit of projecting thoughts of affordability back onto MPs’ pay, so that it is not a consideration exclusively for other workers.

It would also highlight for MPs the need to be as firm, as they evidently wish to be with strikers, with the profiteers who create inflation, diminish the value of workers’ pay and provoke strikes in the first place.