Seven in ten MPs on £65k believe they are underpaid

[Arthur]

They're massively underpaid.

Very much so. It's no wonder they've all got their fingers in lots of other pies.

I expect both Nadine Dorries and that prick Galloway earned more from their reality TV stints than they would for a years work doing what they were elected to do.

 

[Simster]

This

50k is a massive amount! f***ing hell, I was on 25k with a newborn in a flat , and we struggled, but survived, live within your means, strap it up before you slap it up!
Cut back on your all inclusive holidays, iPhone 5's and shit!

I don't mean to sound facetious, but what relevance to an MP's salary is your ability to live in a flat on £25k for a couple of years? At the end of the day, I have no doubt most of us could live on £15k if we had to. Again, that doesn't really tell us that MPs are overpaid or underpaid.

I believe they are underpaid because a) MPs in other countries earn FAR more than they do here and b) I'd say that 90% of them or more could actually earn more than an MP's wage doing something else. They choose not to because they like being an MP...

 

[albion534]

I don't mean to sound facetious, but what relevance to an MP's salary is your ability to live in a flat on £25k for a couple of years? At the end of the day, I have no doubt most of us could live on £15k if we had to. Again, that doesn't really tell us that MPs are overpaid or underpaid.

I believe they are underpaid because a) MPs in other countries earn FAR more than they do here and b) I'd say that 90% of them or more could actually earn more than an MP's wage doing something else. They choose not to because they like being an MP...

It was in reference to another poster talking about the child benefit cuts!

I agree, MP's should earn more! But they need to prove it IMHO

 

[Sussex Nomad]

To be fair, if it is their only job and they are seriously only taking expenses for travel, accommodation, food, etc. (like all us self employed) then they are definitely underpaid, whatever we think of them.

 

[BLOCK F]

If you cant live on 50K then you are too incompetant to have kids.

Just because one can live on £50k it doesn't necessarily mean it is the appropriate level of pay for a particular job.

 

[somerset]

To be fair, if it is their only job and they are seriously only taking expenses for travel, accommodation, food, etc. (like all us self employed) then they are definitely underpaid, whatever we think of them.

Exactly, they are in fact going about the business of running the country, its hardly shelf stacking...... I think that salary is bottom end for a London based exec type roles, but their expense structure fills the gaps.....

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Good to see so many of them think they should keep their final salary pension while voting for so many other people to lose theirs.

 

[BLOCK F]

£65k is more than enough for what an MP does. They're not living in the real world. Anything over £50k is far too much for them in my opinion, but admittedly I haven't really done the necessary research. Their arrogance and inflated sense of self worth is amusing though.


Well,many Prem footballers wouldn't get out of bed for £65k a WEEK!!!!!
That is what I call overpaid.

 

[Uncle C]

Just because one can live on £50k it doesn't mean it is the appropriate level of pay for a particular job.

I think you are confusing me with someone else who is having a pop at MPs. Please re-read the context of my earlier posts.

 

[Brovion]

To be fair, if it is their only job and they are seriously only taking expenses for travel, accommodation, food, etc. (like all us self employed) then they are definitely underpaid, whatever we think of them.

That's part of the problem, they've got such a bad reputation, deservedly so IMO, that suggesting they're underpaid sounds almost treasonable. The Prime Minister's salary is about £142,000. Considering he's basically the CEO of Great Britain Ltd that is an APPALLING wage, I'm sure no other CEO of a Blue Chip company earns that little - plus the PM hasn't got share options and he's turfed out of his tied houses the minute he loses his job. No wonder they've all got fingers in other pies and milk the system to its utmost. Typing that I'm almost starting to feel sorry for them!

 

[somerset]

£65k is more than enough for what an MP does. They're not living in the real world. Anything over £50k is far too much for them in my opinion, but admittedly I haven't really done the necessary research. Their arrogance and inflated sense of self worth is amusing

No mate, arrogance is making a point slating someone publically, then in the same paragraph saying you haven't done any research so your points were baseless anyway.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

That's part of the problem, they've got such a bad reputation, deservedly so IMO, that suggesting they're underpaid sounds almost treasonable. The Prime Minister's salary is about £124,000. Considering he's basically the CEO of Great Britain Ltd that is an APPALLING wage, I'm sure no other CEO of a Blue Chip company earns that little - plus the PM hasn't got share options and he's turfed out of his tied houses the minute he loses his job. No wonder they've all got fingers in other pies and milk the system to its utmost. Typing that I'm almost starting to feel sorry for them!

Well when you think some nobody of 20 at Arsenal called Carl Jenkinson is earning 32k a week (another thread) it does kind of show how little perspective there is in the world.

 

[Paddy B]

I don't mean to sound facetious, but what relevance to an MP's salary is your ability to live in a flat on £25k for a couple of years? At the end of the day, I have no doubt most of us could live on £15k if we had to. Again, that doesn't really tell us that MPs are overpaid or underpaid.

I believe they are underpaid because a) MP's in other countries earn FAR more than they do here and b) I'd say that 90% of them or more could actually earn more than an MP's wage doing something else. They choose not to because they like being an MP...

Agreed.

I don't know about you but I would like the best minds in the UK running this country and at present, I would say, on the whole they are not. This is generally because the corporate world pays far far more.

How can we hope to persuade the brilliant young minds in this country to choose a career in politics, when those running the country are currently paid less than many directors of small-medium companies?

 

[Waynflete]

Agreed.

I don't know about you but I would like the best minds in the UK running this country and at present, I would say, on the whole they are not. This is generally because the corporate world pays far far more.

How can we hope to persuade the brilliant young minds in this country to choose a career in politics, when those running the country are currently paid less than many directors of small-medium companies?

I have a bit of a problem with the assumption that if you pay more you automatically get better people. Banking pays more than almost anything else and a lot of them turned out to be totally incompetent. Similarly, lower paid workers can be exceptional if they care about their work (police, teachers, nurses).

I don't think it's the salary that is the reason we have had so many idiots as MPs, but the political culture. It attracts self promoting egotists and puts off talented sensible people.

Fwiw I think 65k is about right for such an important job, but that executive pay in some other industries should come down.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Fwiw I think 65k is about right for such an important job, but that executive pay in some other industries should come down.

You can't stop private business paying the going rate plus a bit more to get the right people in. The pay a politician gets is poor and if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

 

[Meade's Ball]

£65k plus a free moat and duck palace and the right for your partner to watch free filth in hotels around the country can't be too bad.
I don't think politicians arrive fresh from school without any vast inheritance or savings made from a successful career behind them. They've chosen the role also, so whatever they're paid oughtn't be something they then moan about when it is so far above the average of a generally menial task worker who doesn't have the luxury to spend their time hunting to have more quotes from themselves printed or soundbyted and polish their aloofness. I am sure many work hard, but the benefits will be enormous in the longrun if they ever lose their seat or give it up or get caught being less than perfect for a spell.

 

[soistes]

Definitely underpaid. These are the people with the responsibility for running the country. If we (the tax payer) paid proper wages we just might attract people of the calibre fit to do the job. We would all be benefit from that.

You're absolutely right. This amount is not a lot, for a central London-based job which, despite what a lot of comments on here suggest, can (if done properly) involve a high level of stress, long and anti-social hours, and the pressure of being continually in the public eye and subject to the kind of public criticism which most of the anonymous keyboard warriors on here would run a mile from. Furthermore it is an insecure occupation in the sense that many of them, even if they've done a good and diligent job on behalf of their constituents, risk being chucked out after a few years as public opinion shifts away from their party. There are several studies of ex-MPs which suggest that many, especially the non-Tory ones who don't have inherited or business wealth, end up in in fairly dire financial straits after losing their seats. MPs' salaries, allowing for cost of living, are well below that of their counterparts in most other developed nations. If they had larger salaries (along with strict and enforced rules on expenses, housing claims etc) many more high quality people with good experience of other sectors (which is what we need in my view) would be attracted to Parliament.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

£65k plus a free moat and duck palace and the right for your partner to watch free filth in hotels around the country can't be too bad.
I don't think politicians arrive fresh from school without any vast inheritance or savings made from a successful career behind them.

That is because the majority of politicians get on with their jobs quietly (in terms), serving their constituency and making the weekly journeys to London for Parliament business. But the majority of hard working MPs don't make good news in the tabloids.

 

[Waynflete]

You can't stop private business paying the going rate plus a bit more to get the right people in. The pay a politician gets is poor and if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

Well as I said I don't think the pay is the main reason there are so many monkey MPs. Plenty of talented people out there earning less than 65k working for schools, health service, small businesses, charities.

And while you can't stop businesses paying what they want, the top salaries in the private sector have grown something like five times more than the average private sector salary over the past 30 years or so - partly because top bosses set their own and each others' pay. Industries themselves should find better ways to regulate that.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Well as I said I don't think the pay is the main reason there are so many monkey MPs. Plenty of talented people out there earning less than 65k working for schools, health service, small businesses, charities.

And while you can't stop businesses paying what they want, the top salaries in the private sector have grown something like five times more than the average private sector salary over the past 30 years or so - partly because top bosses set their own and each others' pay. Industries themselves should find better ways to regulate that.

A lot of these people that are claimed to do a far better job and earn less are just not cut out for public life, it isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Edit: Sorry only read the first sentence and posted... I don't want to be regulated thank you very much, if I can do what I do and earn a good days pay, then that is what it is all about, why should the private sector be regulated exactly? So that the rest of the world pick up our best talent because we refuse to pay?