James Joseph is a UK staff correspondent for JURIST.

It was announced Thursday in London that current Members of Parliament will be given a 2.9% pay rise from April 1st. This will bring their overall salary from £84,144 to £86,584. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority said the 2.9% increase was the same as the average increase in pay for public sector employees last year.

The announcement comes admits multiple UK labour sectors and organizations announcing they will strike, asking for pay rises that MPs have refused to debate. Physiotherapists, university staff and Department for Work and Pensions workers are going on strike today. Since December, the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has organised strike days and those have now extended into January and February, as 40,000 workers down tools at one of the busiest periods of the year in a bid to force improved terms. Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members and ambulance staff represented by the GMB, Unite and Unison unions have likewise been on strike over pay and conditions within the National Health Service. These protests and industrial actions have been prominent and public.

The average regular pay growth for the UK private sector was 6.9% in August to October 2022, and only 2.7% for the public sector, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).