Public sector staff feel less valued than they did a decade ago, new research suggests.
The CSMA club - a lifestyle mutual for current and former civil servants - questioned 1,200 public and private sector employees on their attitudes to work.
Some 69% of the public sector staff quizzed by the firm said they felt less valued by society than they had a decade ago, more than double the proportion of those in the private sector (34%) who gave the same response.
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Of the public sector respondents to the study, two-thirds (66%), said media portrayal of public servants gave a negative view of their profession, while only a quarter felt their pay adequately matched their performance. That compared to 40% of private sector respondents who said their pay matched the work they do.
Public sector pay was frozen for two years after 2010, with subsequent payrises capped at 1%. At the latest Budget, chancellor George Osborne confirmed that all departments had now agreed to end time-served progression pay across the civil service.
In spite of the squeeze, the study found that officials were more likely to feel pride in their work compared to their private sector counterparts. More than half (51%) of the public sector staff questioned by the CSMA said they felt proud when telling others where they worked.
For private sector respondents, that figure stood at 37%.
The CSMA's chief executive Carl Fillery said the findings showed that public sector workers were "extremely committed to their work".
"But we know from separate research that despite the slow thawing of the freeze on public sector pay, employees are now worse off in real terms than they were three years ago," he added.
"Public sector employees' outlook on their sector is shifting rapidly so it is crucial that managers and HR professionals recognise that reward and recognition is as important a factor in effective employee engagement in the public sector as it is in the private sector."