Pay and Benefits of Staff Earning over £50,000 per annum

Pay and benefits for staff earning over £50,000 are set by a group of Elected Members called the Employment Panel. Decisions are made by evaluating the content of each job using a set of nationally recognised criteria. Strategic Directors and Heads of Service salaries are then benchmarked against other national and local jobs before arriving at a specific salary, taking into account factors such as the competitiveness of the market for the role and the experience of the candidate. Salary is shown in column (a). Where the actual amount paid is less than the annual salary it is because the person was not in post, full time or for the whole year.

The remuneration package is made up of a salary, the opportunity to opt into the local government pension scheme and in some cases Performance Related Pay.

The regulations governing the pension scheme are set nationally. Employees are expected to make contributions of between 5% and 7.5% into the pension fund (the more you earn the more you contribute). This employee contribution is matched by an employer contribution which is currently 14.7%, shown in column (b). New pension rules applying from 1st April 2010 mean that senior staff may be taxed on both the employer and employee contributions at the higher rate of tax.

In some cases staff are entitled to private medical cover, a benefit which is taxable.

The council has a Performance Related Pay scheme in place for the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Heads of Service. This means there is an opportunity to earn up to an additional 15% of salary, subject to satisfactory achievement of objectives. This scheme was introduced during 2008. In 2010-11 a total of £70k was paid to the Chief Executive, Strategic Directors and Heads of Service.

The council's expenses policy applies to all staff regardless of salary and covers things such as reimbursement for travel expenses. Some staff are entitled to overtime and specific allowances in lieu of overtime relating to working in the evening or shift work. Details of expenses claimed are in column (d).

The Chief Executive is also the Borough's (Acting) Returning Officer and is paid separately for managing elections, see column (e).
Information in the tables below is split into three groups. The remuneration of the Chief Executive and his direct reports is shown in detail. The bandings for Heads of Service are listed, whilst all those earning more than £50,000 per annum are shown by Directorate / Schools.

How do you rate this information/service?