How much is an MP'S secretary worth ?

[BertiWooster]

I just caught part of an item on Radio 2 at lunch time , where the discussion was about MP's not being able to employ family members in this new report proposed by ... ( forget his name )

Anyway , this woman who was her husband's secretary was on 30 - 40k ? - can this realy be correct ?

What would be her duties that would command this level of salary

[Ankou]

the 1,000 commons secretaries and researchers each earn between £20,000 and £40,000 a year.

sounds about going average for london to me. it gallls me though when it is a member of their family, lkike the one who 'employed' her sister as a secretary, but the sister lived 125 miles from her and apparently incurreed travelling expenses on top.

[webbo3]

overpaid for a secretary as far as im concerned, someone on bbc's morning programme emailed in and said "whats to stop MP's employing other MP'S wives/partners ect.
eg..
MP A employs MP B's wife
MP B employs MP A'S wife

both wives still get a high income and both MP'S benefit from having family members overpaid and employed at the expense of the taxpayer.

Dave.

[Oneeyedvic]

My wife had worked for me in the past - and she certainly put in more than 40 hours a week.

I think that this proposal is ludicrous, but if people see it as a 'freebie' then it can either be capped at a certain level (say £25k) or all MPs can have a certain allowance and then allocate their staff from that allowance

[Androcles]

I suppose they could argue that working as a secretary for an MP plus all the other "duties" a wife has to provide, cheap at the price!

[Ankou]

nah, average. as i said, so long as they are qualified and it is their only job and it is not nepotism its fine by me.

http://www.secsinthec...tary-jobs.html?area=1

[craft1948]

I don't think 40k is OTT for a good secretary/PA............the company I worked for certainly paid between 30k and 40k for the right people......and that wasn't just in London.

[LoftyLottie]

There are Secretaries and there are secretaries. An experienced PA Secretary can have a very exacting job and in many cases works a lot harder than his/her boss who would be lost without their secretary. Unfortunately, the term 'Secretary' for some people just conjures up a picture of someone sitting at a desk doing limited paper work and channeling phone calls. The sort of salary quoted would seem very fair for a good secretary. And if a wife acted as a true Secretary and put in the work and the hours then I see nothing wrong. In some cases it might make more sense.

However, I doubt whether some of the family members employed by MP's have actually earned their salaries or been qualified to do their jobs.

[rov1200]

We could save the taxpayer a lot of money if instead of PAs they could have a typing or secretarial pool. MPs should spend more time in Westminster.

[Prudentia]

i would think that an MP's salary should be set at the minimum wage because they do nothing, every expense claim must be supported by a receipt and closely scrutinised, fraudulent claims must carry a prison term of a minimum of four years, repeated attempts to claim fraudulently should mean life.