I refer to the Soapbox letter of May 24, “Welcome to the real world of work”. I will use the term ill-informed rather than ignorant to describe its author. To accurately portray my point, I have picked a middle grade to reflect the salary of a fully time-served tradesman working for the public sector and rounded it off for simplicity.

For a straight working week, the salary is about £20,000 per annum. To make this up to just short of £23,000 PA, these fully qualified, apprenticeship-trained tradesmen can take the option of working one in three weekends.

Advice given by a financial advisor indicates the pension is worth about £2,000 per year, thus making approximately £25,000 PA for these skilled tradesmen working unsociable hours.

Now, not being a mathematician or accountant, the next part may be slightly inaccurate, but if the person who wrote the letter I refer to has had a decrease of 28 per cent, which equals £10,000, this would mean they would have to be earning about £35,714.

Maybe now they will realise that just because a job carries the label “civil servant” it doesn’t automatically carry the financial gain of those at the top in either the public or the private sector.

Name and address supplied.