“What do they expect us to live on?” one striker on the picket lines asked The Irish Times this week. “Nobody can survive on the wages we’re getting.”

“I think it’s important to say this is for everyone,” said another. “The Government are just squeezing us so hard with the cost of living and yeah, we need more money just to survive.”

It was a refrain heard through the extensive and largely positive media coverage of the strike (RTÉ seems especially keen) on Wednesday: it is impossible to survive on public sector wages. Workers have been hammered by increases in the cost of living. They can’t afford to live.

This is a perhaps understandable exaggeration to make a point, though it is also another example of how moderation is disappearing from our political debate. Public servants are not unable to survive, obviously; they may be short of money, but they are getting by. However, one thing that has been absent from much of the debate is what exactly are public servants – teachers, nurses, gardaí, civil servants and so on – actually paid? Are they all as badly off as the coverage might suggest?

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It is certainly true that there are many low-paid workers in the public service who are struggling to get by.........

© The Irish Times