Saturday, April 06, 2013

Everyone above average

Ireland still has a lot to do in figuring out precisely how and why the Celtic Tiger bubble got out of hand, but there's a clue in this RTE story about the current scandal concerning the salary of the former CEO of the Irish Medical Organisation (doctor's union) --

It has also emerged that the original CEO's contract was drafted in 2003 on the advice of independent outside consultants. The consultants were asked to benchmark it to comparable office holders in the public and private sectors at the time.

What this brings out is the creep of upper private sector pay practices into the Irish public sector and quasi-public sector. Coupled with existing relativities and parities embedded in the public sector system and the unquestioned instrument of percentage pay increases, there was a recipe for the trebles all round era of pay packages in Ireland, with the biggest personal windfalls of course going to those at the top.