Use our calculator to find out how much you’re losing

Our cost-of-living calculator is an easy way to see how much you are missing out on by comparing the cost of living increases over the past year with the increases to your salary.

We’re encouraging members to use the calculator to work out how much you have lost and share your results using social media. Tell us your experiences of ongoing low pay by emailing editor@pcs.org.uk and remember not just to get angry about it, but to vote in the national ballot to show your determination to fight for better pay.

Last year strike action by PCS members forced the government into making a pay offer that was, on average, almost double its original offer, and which also included a £1500 cost-of-living payment (pro-rated for part-time workers).

We paused strike action to enable talks to take place with the Cabinet Office, but always maintained that the increased pay remit still wasn’t enough. Our research has shown that there is a very long way to go to restore civil service pay to the levels that it should be at, and to restore your standard of living to what it should be.

Our pay claim for 2023/24 includes demands for above-inflation pay rises and pay restoration.

Losing out on £1000s

Our cost-of-living calculator takes into account increases in the cost of living during the last year, and overpayments on your pension, and contrasts it with how much your income has increased due to the pay rise won.

The calculator shows that an AA working for the DWP, paying a mortgage, will have been worse off by £1491 last year (based on an average salary of £22,845 in April 2023). Paying rent they were likely to have been worse off by £352.

In the Department of Transport an AA who lives in rented accommodation, working full time, will have lost £475 last year. If they had a mortgage it would have been a loss of around £1615.

These are based upon average figures, and many members will have had higher increases in rent or mortgage payments over the last year. Use our calculator to work out your own figures.

The results show how important it is that the government listens to our pay demands for 2023/24. Our strike ballot closes on 13 May and maximising turnout is vital. Read more information.