pmsumner

I was made irrationally angry this morning by a pair of statistics quoted by someone on the radio this morning. (about 2hrs 42mins into today's program - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00y5cks/Today_09_02_2011/)

It was somebody from the London Pension Funds Authority talking about the planned increased to employee contributions for their pension. He said, roughly, that the change would have the largest effect on "middle-class employees" earning £35-£40k. This is probably a reasonable thing to say because (making a number of assumptions) they're going to lose a considerable amount of their take-home pay (he quoted 4%).

He then continued in almost the same breath, to say that the average pension is ~£4k.

He's suggesting that local government employees who earn £35k end up with a pension of £4k?

That is not comparing the same thing with the same thing. The LG employees on the ~£4k pensions are the part time cooks, cleaners and administrative staff on low wages. He tried to (perhaps he didn't, but he managed to) link very well paid people with very low pensions.