Thousands of special needs assistants (SNAs), clerical officers and other lower paid public sector workers are set to receive pay increases significantly beyond the 10.75 per cent headline figure in this week’s agreement between the Government and unions.

For anyone earning over €60,000 a year, that 10.75 per cent over two years and nine months will amount to 11.27 per cent when compounded.

For the very lowest paid public employees the uplift will exceed 18 per cent by March 2029. However, this example, provided by Government, of a newly recruited cleaner, is quite exceptional as the person would be one of the lowest earners in the entire public service.

An SNA with five years’ service will see their like-for-like income increase by 15.6 per cent over the term of the deal, while a newly recruited teacher, for example, will see a 12.75 per cent increase.

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This assumes that they get the 1 per cent allocated for local bargaining, a mechanism for addressing sectoral or role-specific issues. This is not necessarily straight forward. All of the money may be allocated to a particular group of workers so they get significantly more than 1 per cent while others in the same sector get nothing. However, an even spread is assumed in the calculations given here.

Most employees in the public and Civil Service also benefit from annual increments during the early parts of their time in a particular role, an automatic annual increase linked to their growing experience.

In the case of SNAs, for instance, their pay would increase annually from €31,600 in year one to €47,300 in year 14 without any actual pay increases being received.

In the case of a principal officer on a higher scale, starting pay of €116,400 increases to €134,900 over five years. The number of increments depends on the role and these routinely provide substantial increases over time.

Such increments have been ignored for the purpose of these calculations, as have other elements of income, like allowances and overtime rates, many of which will be adjusted as a result of the new deal. In addition, figures have been rounded slightly for simplicity.