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Public-sector employees’ pay doesn’t compare with that of private-sector employees. It is set unilaterally, not through negotiation with public employers. It is not linked to the employee’s economic performance but to their position in a hierarchy. It is therefore disconnected from their personal investment at work, which remains collective in nature. Performance-related pay only concerns a small part of their overall earnings. While New Public Management theories have sought to “privatize” public-sector employees, they have failed to change a specific relationship to work dominated by a sense of social and collective utility.