GOVERNMENT figures show that 74% of Ireland’s public servants earn more than the average national wage compared with fewer than 50% of workers in the private sector.

The revelation debunks claims by trade union leaders that the public service is largely populated by low paid workers.

Figures supplied to The Sunday Times by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show for the first time how pay scales compare between the public and private sectors.

The public-sector figures are based on the 352,000 people who were employed as civil servants, health workers, teachers and in commercial state bodies such as the ESB when the analysis was prepared in autumn 2006.

The analysis reveals that 74.2% of all public-sector workers earned more than €40,000 at a time when the average salary was €37,200. That equates to more than 260,000 of the numbers employed in the public sector at the time.

In comparison, just 47.7% of private-sector workers were paid in excess of €40,000 that year.

A comparison of those earning between €50,000 and €100,000 revealed that 102,577 public-sector employees, or 29.1%, were on this pay scale compared with just 13.1% of workers in the private sector.

It is only in the case of salaries exceeding €100,000 that the private sector comes out on top. About 2.5% of all private-sector workers fall into this category compared with 1.8% of public-sector staff.

At the other end of the scale workers earning less than €30,000 made up 52.2% of the private-sector workforce compared with 25.8% of the public sector.

The figures were compiled for the 2006 national employment survey which was released shortly before a new national pay deal was agreed in September. That report did not contain the detailed figures published today but showed that public-sector workers earned almost 50% more than those in the private sector with an average wage of €25.47 per hour compared with €17.11 in the private sector.

Public-service unions dismissed the comparisons saying that they did not compare “like with like”.

Jim Power, chief economist with Friends First, said that the public-sector unions could not argue with the statistics.

“It is impossible for the unions to say they have more low paid workers than then private sector because these statistics don’t back it up,” said Power. “It’s the sort of misinformed information thrown out by unions that resulted in the debacle that was benchmarking.”

Power said the general public didn’t realise how the economy was being “strangled” by the costs of paying the public-wage increases granted under the 2002 benchmarking report. That report granted public-sector workers an average 8.9% wage increase “This is adding €1.5 billion to the public-sector pay bill every year and yet consider the furore over the medical cards which was designed to save €100m. It pales into insignificance in comparison,” said Power.

“It has been factually provedthat public-sector workers are on average better paid than private-sector workers. If you take into account the security of employment, the guaranteed pension and the shorter working hours, then the public sector is in a much more advantageous position.

“In the private sector thousands of workers are being let go and salaries are being cut by 10% to 20% in some companies. It is clear the public-sector unions believe the adjustment in the economy must be borne entirely by the private sector,” said Power.

The total pay and pensions bill for the public sector in 2008 is expected to reach €18.9 billion, up almost 7% on last year. The cumulative cost of the benchmarking agreement has reached €8.9 billion since 2002.

Brian Lenihan, the finance minister, said last week that public-sector reform is going to be “messy and unpleasant”.

The government is awaiting a report next month from a task force on public-sector reform before it decides whether to attempt to introduce public- sector redundancies and other reforms.

The task force is headed by five secretary-generals of government departments, one former secretary-general who now works for UCD and three directors from private-sector companies.

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