Has the Government made an assessment of the impact of raising the wages of the NHS workforce and the education workforce on Welsh income tax revenue and any wider positive fiscal impact, for example on student loan repayments?
We believe all public sector workers should be fairly rewarded for the important work they do and be provided with a sustainable wage increase which is properly costed as part of the annual budget settlement. Increased wages in any profession whether in the public or private sectors should, in most cases, have a positive impact on income tax revenues and the wider fiscal landscape. It is important to recognise however that increasing public sector wages would result in a net cost to the Welsh budget as the cost of the pay increases would exceed the additional amount generated by Welsh rates of income tax, which is set at 10 pence for each band. Student loans and their repayments are covered by Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) and non-cash budgets, hence the Welsh Government’s main budgets are unaffected.