All this chitter chatter about Stephen Nolan’s salary has got us thinking about pay.
No, we’re not going to go into the reasons why he gets up to half a million pounds a year, or why Emily Matlis, who presents Newsnight, and Sarah Montague, who is a senior presenter on The Today programme, – two heavy hitting shows – don’t even appear on the much-anticipated list of Beeb stars who earn over £150,000 a year.
Those sticky subjects are for others to unpick, although for what it’s worth the underpayment of the two top-class news presenters is a travesty; the substantial payment to Nolan seems less so as you can’t deny he works hard and pulls in the punters in both local and national BBC.
No, we got thinking about the pay gap between the average worker in Northern Ireland who earns £26,070 a year – Nolan earns 19 time more (sorry, we’ll stop) – and the average worker in England, Scotland and Wales combined who earns £28,560.
That’s a gap of nearly 9% and rightly makes us feel a little downbeat about our earning potential on these shores, although, as with all data, it’s worth delving into the detail.
That’s something Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) does brilliantly and, on this occasion, it comes bearing some cheer.
Those clever bods have worked out that the inflated salaries which London commands can distort the picture slightly.
If you take London out of the equation and look at the average salary of the rest of GB then the differential narrows to just 3.6%.
Still not feeling satisfied that we aren’t earning as much as the rest of the UK?
Well maybe it’s worth taking into consideration the fact we don’t have to spend as much on essentials because our cost of living is comparatively much lower.
The UUEPC has calculated that we in Northern Ireland spend just 12% of our incomes on housing costs compared to those in other parts of the UK who spend 22%.
Given that housing costs are the biggest burden for most people, that is a big saving and allows us to spend our money on things we enjoy doing.
It won’t come as any surprise then to learn that we spend more on food, drink, clothing and communications than any other region of the UK.
And we’re second only to London on the amount we spend in restaurants.
While our wages might not look great at the headline figure, the fact our costs are much lower means we’re able to have better quality of life in pubs, restaurants, shops and – oddly – on the phone.
This is valuable information and perhaps isn’t highlighted enough to those thinking of moving or returning here for a job.
“Combine that with a high quality, low cost education system for their children and Northern Ireland becomes an increasingly attractive location for overseas executives,” said Gareth Hetherington from UUEPC. “This is a good news story that too often goes untold.”
Maybe we should let Nolan know? He seems to be able to get a message across.