Sunday 17 October 2010

Transparent Facts & Figures - Apparently Not

Conrad Quilter-Harper - who writes in the Telegraph about data and visualisations and is their Data Mapping Reporter - has an interesting article on the release of the structure and pay of people working in central Government departments. According to QH, a great deal is not in easily accessible formats, however one intriguing set of data he did disclose.
"HMRC
Employs 68,053 FTE staff (of which 68,010 are junior and 42.89 are senior)
Average pay (junior staff): £22,421 – £29,954
Average pay (senior staff): £123,017 – £128,016

Senior staff are paid on average 4.8 times what junior staff get
Total pay (all staff): 1,530,181,242 – 2,042,729,051"
Just look at those figures for total pay!

Now were we to have a simple flat tax system one wonders by how much that wages bill would be cut.

Just a thought..........

2 comments:

Woodsy42 said...

I have to feel somewhat sorry for the .89 of a senior staffer, an amputee perhaps? Or maybe there are some part timers on the staff - in which case are we seeing an average full time salary or an average take-home?
I'm also confused how an 'average' can have a range - an average is a single number.
I also note that 43 people earning £125,000 doesn't come to 2,042,729,051, so what's going on here?
Confused of Staffordshire

Richard said...

So senior staff are paid 4.8x that of junior staff? Do they not have career progression in HMRC?