The general strike by the British Public Sector unions is a protest against pension reform. Are the Public Sector workers really suffering terrible hardship compared with the rest of the population? The median pension paid to members of public service pension schemes is about £5,600 a year (2009/10). About 90% of pensioners receive less than £17,000 a year, and about 10% are on £1,000 a year or less. By comparison, the median private pension income across both the public and private sectors (sum of occupational and personal pension income), for a single pensioner, is about £3,900 a year (2009/10). The public sector employees pay varying amounts towards their pensions: When it started, members of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme put in the same as the taxpayer – 5% each. Today, current members pay 6.4%, with employers contributing more than double - 14.1%. NHS employee contributions vary from 5.5 to 8.5%, whereas the employer contributes 1...