As a result almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents in the poll carried out for the TUC by polling and research company Survation, think that the Government's proposals for local or regional pay for public servants should be scrapped.
Under these plans teachers, nurses and other public sector workers who live in less prosperous parts of the UK would be paid less than colleagues who work in wealthier areas.
When asked what they thought of Government plans for local or regional pay, which are likely to mean a long-term pay freeze for public sector workers outside London and the South East, almost two-thirds of voters (61%) thought that this would be unfair. Just 26% of voters believed that such a move would be fair. More than seven in ten (71%) of Liberal Democrat voters think the introduction of local pay would be unfair, with just 22% saying the plans would be fair.
Less than a fifth of voters in the TUC survey (19%) want the Government to press ahead with plans to pay some public sector workers less depending on where in the UK they live. Almost two-thirds (65%) want the government to drop the plans.
Even among people who voted for the Coalition in 2010, there is little support for regional pay. Three-quarters of Liberal Democrat voters (75%) want ministers to scrap their plans, while just 17% think the Government should press ahead. Half of the Conservative voters questioned (51%) think the Government should drop the idea of regional pay, a third (33%) think they should continue.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Ministers should be listening to those MPs who live in less affluent parts of the UK and who are only too aware of the damaging impact that an even longer public sector pay freeze could have on their local economies, which are already taking a hammering as families rein in their spending and austerity bites hard."
He added: "The Government's regional pay plans will not help create a single new job in the private sector, and can only do harm to already struggling local economies. The most sensible thing ministers could do is drop these ill-thought out plans and concentrate instead on policies that will tackle unemployment and increase the UK's chances of creating economic growth."
Pollsters Survation was commissioned by the TUC to explore public attitudes towards the issues relating to regional and local public sector pay.
Survation questioned 1,016 adults in England, Scotland and Wales online on 19-20 September 2012. Data was weighted to the profile of all adults aged 18+ and by gender, age, socio-economic group, region, past vote and likelihood to vote.
