Private sector graduates earn more - graduate jobs

Workers with degrees earned more in private firms than in the public sector, while the opposite is true for staff with lower level or no qualifications, according to a new report.

The TUC said its analysis showed that people educated to degree level earned 4.7% more than public sector workers with the same level of qualifications, while employees without any qualifications earned 3.2% less in the private sector.

Public sector employees were almost twice as likely to have a degree as those in private companies, with jobs in the civil service and NHS such as physiotherapy and radiography, increasingly requiring high level qualifications, said the union organisation.

The study also revealed that workers often have their pay cut if their job is outsourced from the public to the private sector, despite regulations aimed at protecting their conditions.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "While high-flyers with degrees can expect to earn less in the public sector, lower-skilled and lower-paid staff can expect a better deal in the public sector."