MANY will probably have heard that tired old narrative from some on the right wing about public sector employees having a cushy life while those working for companies large and small struggle on a daily basis.

The tunnel-visioned, ideological perspective of those making such a claim is, hopefully obviously, entirely lamentable. It adds nothing at all to any debate about the economy, society or working life but it could most certainly be damaging, if the tiresome drip, drip, drip effect of such whingeing feeds through to major policy decisions.

And, amid a UK cost-of-living crisis exacerbated greatly by the Tories’ hard Brexit and their failure over many years to ensure anything like adequate security of energy supply, it is more important than ever that this frankly just plain wrong characterisation of public and private sector workers is seen for what it is. For the avoidance of doubt, it should be seen as absolute nonsense.

It beggars belief that some management types in the private sector with political leanings and/or blinkered outlooks seem to take the view that teachers or nurses, for example, have an easy life. Some of these management types are busy but others appear far less so, and a large number will most certainly not face the daily pressures, stresses and responsibilities handled so professionally by so many people in key roles in the public sector. Nevertheless, the management types, whether or not they are busy and valuable, will generally be paid much more.

Of course, a similar argument could be applied to some managers in the public sector, with some of these individuals probably from time to time getting in the way of service delivery through a lack of knowledge of what is happening on the front line.

Such a lack of awareness in management can, of course, apply in both the public and private sectors. And this is just another of so many reasons why it is foolish to try to make a judgement on whether something is good or bad on the basis of whether it is in the public or private sector.

The current raft of strike action in the public sector in the UK was always going to divide opinion.

There seems to be a monumental lack of understanding generally about how, quite simply, a pay rise which falls short of inflation represents a real-terms cut. It is a matter of simple arithmetic. The further the pay rise falls short of inflation, the greater the cut.

When it comes to pay rises, the real-terms or inflation-adjusted effect is obviously the one that the focus must be on. A nominal rise which is well adrift of the increase in the cost of living might sound big to some less familiar with the real-terms concept, particularly after years of benign inflation, but that is irrelevant.

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And, of course, a pay rise which is far below inflation will be baked in, representing a permanent fall in living standards, given that it seems unlikely, particularly in light of the grim UK economic outlook, that we will see employers rushing in future years to make up for what workers have lost by awarding settlements way ahead of growth in consumer prices.

The focus has tended to be on the waves of strikes, or threats of them, in the public sector. This is understandable, given the importance of the jobs performed by nurses and teachers, and others. There is of course also major industrial action across the private sector, even if it is the strike by Royal Mail workers which has caught far more attention than disputes over pay and conditions at myriad other companies.

It has often seemed that in senior Tory ranks there has been an urge to demonise the strikers, and to present an argument that huge numbers of workers in the public sector should just make do with the paltry sums they are offered because this is for the good of post-Brexit Blighty. This is woeful.

The ideologically inclined spectators who would vilify public sector workers in general – and those seeking a decent pay rise through industrial action in particular – might be surprised by the latest average earnings data from the Office for National Statistics published this week. And they would do well to reflect on the contrast between the public and private sectors in this context.

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The data do not fit at all well with these spectators’ tired old narrative, which has also included jealousy over pension provision even though the likes of teachers and nurses are not paid what they might be in the private sector for the type of responsibility they bear and workers in the public sector are not eligible for bumper bonuses.

Such bonuses are, of course, prevalent in many companies.

And sometimes it is the recipients of such major bonuses who seem the noisiest when it comes to whingeing about pensions in the public sector. It must be emphasised that many in receipt of such bonuses, which will in some situations be deserved and in other cases not so much, do realise the worth of the likes of teachers and nurses, and happily pay their taxes to fund essential services. However, some do not, and such individuals often seem to have a surprisingly high opinion of their own contribution.

All those who do carp about the public sector – and there are so many from myriad sectors, roles and backgrounds – really should reflect on two key figures in the ONS data this week.

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The ONS figures revealed that average year-on-year growth in regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 6.9% for the private sector in the August to October period. It was only 2.7% for the public sector.

And the ONS declared: “Outside of the height of the pandemic period, this is the largest growth rate seen for the private sector and is among the largest differences between the private sector and public sector growth rates we have seen.”

Annual UK consumer prices index inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1% in October, before falling to a still eye-watering 10.7% in November, more than five times the 2% target set for the Bank of England by the Treasury.

So it is, of course, worth bearing in mind that millions of workers in the private sector will be under financial pressure even if they match that 6.9% average pay growth, and this is clearly not a good situation either.

Behind the headline numbers will lie many stories of day-to-day misery and hardship.

However, the ONS figures indicate that it is, overall, workers in the public sector, hammered by protracted pay freezes and caps in the wake of the global financial crisis amid Tory austerity, who are now having to endure the steepest drops in real-terms pay and by natural extension the sharpest decline in living standards.

Given the Tories’ awful handling of the economy and not inconsiderable part in pushing prices and costs much higher for consumers and businesses, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s declaration that high pay demands will be damaging and result in inflation not falling fast enough is quite something.

Unsurprisingly, once again, the Tories are asking other people to pick up a colossal tab for their economic incompetence.