Cleaners more valuable than bankers

(14/12/09) Public service workers are good value for money – a childcare worker, for instance, produces between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society for every £1 they're paid, according to research from the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

Looking at six sample professions from the private and public sector, its latest report shows while bankers, tax accountants and advertising executives destroy value, lower paid professions such as childcare workers, hospital cleaners and recycling workers add between £7 and £11 of social value for every £1 they are paid.

While the common view links wages to a simple measure, such as producing profits for their employer, the NEF looked at so-called 'externalities' – the consequences of economic activities – and put monetary values on them to "quantify the social, environmental and economic value that people's work produces – or in some cases the value that is undermined or destroyed."

It then looked at six specific examples of professions.

Three are low paid (and public service) jobs: a hospital cleaner, a recycling plant worker and a childcare worker. The other three are highly paid: a City banker, an advertising executive and a tax accountant.

The report showed that:

• a hospital cleaner generates £10 in social value for every £1 they are paid;



• waste recycling workers generate £12 of value for every £1 spent on wages;



• childcare workers create between £7 and £9.50 of social value for every £1 they are paid.

• City bankers, on salaries of between £500,000 and £10m a year, destroy £7 of social value for every £1 they generate;



• advertising executives, while highly paid at between £50,000 and £12m, destroy £11 of social value for every £1 they create;



• for a salary of between £75,000 and £200,000 a year, tax accountants destroy £47 of social value for every £1 they generate.

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