Highest Paid Council Boss On £242,617 - 50% Earn More Than Pm

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356720/HALF-council-chiefs-earn-PM-despite-protesting-cuts-wont-fat-salaries.html

The sky-high pay of the town hall bosses overseeing savage cuts in front-line services is revealed in an authoritative study today.

It shows that half of them now earn more than the Prime Minister.

The first detailed breakdown of council chief executive pay shows that the average is paid more than £147,000, or close to £3,000 a week. By contrast David Cameron earns £142,500.

Incomes Data Services (IDS), the most reliable pay analyst organisation in the country, obtained figures from 312 out of the 400 councils in England and Wales. These showed that 134 chief executives earn more than £150,000.

Extended over the remaining 88 councils who did not reply this could mean 172 council bosses earn more than £150,000, and at least 28 more will be on the average or above.

Fifteen earn more than £200,000, and the highest paid received almost £300,000 last year.

The Coalition demanded in October that all bosses earning more than £150,000 should take a five per cent pay cut, while those on more than £200,000 were requested to take a 10 per cent cut. It is believed that only seven have done so.

............

For the shire counties and London boroughs average pay is around £190,000. Pay in cities outside London - the metropolitan districts - is around £20,000 less a year. Even in district councils, which are responsible for collecting rubbish but which have no schools or social services, chief executive salaries run at around £110,000.

Highest paid of all council chiefs, the report said, was Gerald Jones, top official at the London borough of Wandsworth, who retired last autumn. His basic pay was £242,617 in his last full year, but a bonus took it up to £299,925.

Miss Rahman said that accounts so far published show that only one council, Cambridgeshire, has recorded a five per cent pay cut for its chief executive. However, she said, some councils have opted to share a chief executive with neighbouring authorities to try to cut costs.

Only seven council chiefs in all are thought to have accepted pay cuts since Mr Pickles’ demand. Among them is Joanna Killian of Essex, who earned £237,000 last year. She took a five per cent cut. Cornwall’s chief executive Kevin Lavery has also shaved five per cent of his £200,000.

I wonder what Mr Jones did for his council tax payers that warranted a £57k bonus? He must have done something amazing to warrant that sort of reward, did he generate a huge amount of income for the council selling on services for the private sector to use and thus reducing the council tax burden for the local tax payers?

[papag]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356720/HALF-council-chiefs-earn-PM-despite-protesting-cuts-wont-fat-salaries.html

I wonder what Mr Jones did for his council tax payers that warranted a £57k bonus? He must have done something amazing to warrant that sort of reward, did he generate a huge amount of income for the council selling on services for the private sector to use and thus reducing the council tax burden for the local tax payers?

This along with the thousands of non jobs is Labours real legacy which they CANT blame on a global downturn, its nothing more than legalised theft on a massive scale which friends fellow sympathisers who no doubt who had political influence.

Its just a shame that we dont have a police system to expose what has gone on as probably they have benefited just as much as the so called council employees

[aa3]

Meanwhile people who really need help on welfare ask for £20 extra a month, and they are told our society just can't afford it.

I just dont' believe them that the money isn't there to make sure everyone, even low skilled workers can live a first world standard of living. Its like in the great depression all the nations were allegedly so broke they couldn't help people in need.. but when war broke out they somehow had enough money to fight a world war.

Or a more recent example when Britain was asked to lend £7 billion as a first installment to Ireland in that bailout.. we had the money the next day, no questions asked. No need to even go to parliament for approval.

Edited February 14, 2011 by aa3

[fluffy666]

I wonder what Mr Jones did for his council tax payers that warranted a £57k bonus? He must have done something amazing to warrant that sort of reward, did he generate a huge amount of income for the council selling on services for the private sector to use and thus reducing the council tax burden for the local tax payers?

You do realize that his alarm clock went off nearly every weekday morning? Frankly, I think I deserve a 57k annual bonus for that.

I don't quite understand why Council bosses are not simply put on a national pay scale, the same as most of the staff. It would benefit the economy - after all, if these people are worth £300k a year, I'm sure the private sector could use them, so we could cut their pay to perhaps £70k and benefit everyone.

[erranta]

http://www.dailymail...t-salaries.html

I wonder what Mr Jones did for his council tax payers that warranted a £57k bonus? He must have done something amazing to warrant that sort of reward, did he generate a huge amount of income for the council selling on services for the private sector to use and thus reducing the council tax burden for the local tax payers?

Cameron paid

Expenses 2008/09 = £152,179

+ Wage = £140,000+

+ Presidential 'presents'

+ directorships?/Trusts/other income etc

+ numerous 'free' houses paid/kept by the taxpayer for Prime Minister use eg. Chequers £X Million p.a.

"David Cameron's great-great grandfather Emile Levita, a German-Jewish financier"

[SarahBell]

It's big of them to take a 5% cut ... which equates to about the amount the lowest paid workers get in a year.

Cheeky monkies. Où est Mme guillotine quand tu as besoin?

[aa3]

Guillotines or my idea... we need to copy Egypt and have the army take over. While the Lib/Lab/Con regime removed from power.

Edited February 14, 2011 by aa3

[Realistbear]

"Britain is taking on the increasing character of a bygone era that some might lable Dickensian when cutpurses, rogues and thieves permeated every level of society."

I have to agree.

[Bloo Loo]

council and GLA tax for Wandsworth was £681 for 2010....lets call it £700.

the LEADER alone takes £300K, plus his expenses and official costs...lets call it £400K.

thats the total tax take on 571 council tax payers....just for ONE MAN.

[Brave New World]

council and GLA tax for Wandsworth was £681 for 2010....lets call it £700.

the LEADER alone takes £300K, plus his expenses and official costs...lets call it £400K.

thats the total tax take on 571 council tax payers....just for ONE MAN.

The most obscene thing is not so much the pay but the fact that these councils consider front line services like libraries etc are first to be cut and not these obscene 50k salaries. The Government should be getting council salaries audited to ascertain how much DIRECT impact the loss of these people would have on the services paid for by the public.

Somewhere along the line these people have lost track of the public SERVANT aspect of their roles.

[Realistbear]

It may be possible for a citizen's action group to take these pigs to court on an "abuse of power" claim and possible exortion of pub;ic funds. I suspect we would find a viper's nest of corruption, nepotism, favours for sex and bribery going on to secure these jobs and ancillary support positons (£120k a year for the chief trougher's "personal asssistant" that also serves a a comfort lady).

Unless action is taken it will only get worse as there is no moral standard, no plumb line for ethical conduct, noaccountability.

In such scenarios a revolution may be the only way to break it.

Do we have an Oliver Cromwell figure out there yet?

[Bloo Loo]

The most obscene thing is not so much the pay but the fact that these councils consider front line services like libraries etc are first to be cut and not these obscene 50k salaries. The Government should be getting council salaries audited to ascertain how much DIRECT impact the loss of these people would have on the services paid for by the public.

Somewhere along the line these people have lost track of the public SERVANT aspect of their roles.

You could guess that I would suggest an immediate cut by 50% all public sector salaries and emoluments over 25K.

then, of course, these highly paid individuals would all leave to find those jobs they compare themselves with...and when they are gone...dont replace them.

Of course, the REAL reason these people earn these sums, is that they keep their MOUTHS SHUT.

[aa3]

Allegedly we are a democratic society.. but I've never heard anyone say they wanted to shut down the libraries in town and give a generous performance bonus to the council boss.

I also am a supporter of the Bloo Loo pay reform plan of 50% reduction on anything over 25k.

[Bloo Loo]

You no it must be bad when the call for leadership based on a murdering kunt is made.

yes, just where is Tony Blair these days?....oh yes, middle east envoy....

[Traktion]

Meanwhile people who really need help on welfare ask for £20 extra a month, and they are told our society just can't afford it.

I just dont' believe them that the money isn't there to make sure everyone, even low skilled workers can live a first world standard of living. Its like in the great depression all the nations were allegedly so broke they couldn't help people in need.. but when war broke out they somehow had enough money to fight a world war.

Or a more recent example when Britain was asked to lend £7 billion as a first installment to Ireland in that bailout.. we had the money the next day, no questions asked. No need to even go to parliament for approval.

Sickening, isn't it? Even just (!) the 60k bonus could have paid for 1200 weeks of JSA (or about 100 people for 3 months). TBH, if they had only received the bonus as their entire salary, it would seem sufficient (240k = 400 people on JSA for 3 months then) - I can only imagine the monster pension these people will receive too! :angry:

[Hyperduck Quack Quack]

One thing the Torylition could do that would buy them some popularity is have a policy on top pay. There should be a cap of £100,000 on pay for anyone in the public sector AND for anyone employed by a company (PLC or Ltd), including directors and including bonuses. Also public sector organisations and companies should set the fees they pay outside contractors - not the other way round. In other words, if you offer to fix the roof on a school, you don't give a quote or estimate, the council tells you what they'll pay you and you take it or leave it. That system works for the supermarkets when they buy stuff from farmers and the customer benefits.

And people who want to earn big, big money would have to do so as either as sole traders or members of a partnership.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Hyperduck Quack Quack

[Hyperduck Quack Quack]

The green eyed monster syndrome ?

The green-eyed monster syndrome is perfectly justified here when the country is being ripped off by top bosses in both the public and private sectors raking in more and more money for themselves just because they've got the gold key to the gold safe full of gold coins.

I'm a leftist, I believe in fairness. Life isn't always fair but that doesn't mean the we should all throw up our hands and accept 'legalised theft' by people at the top of the food chain.

Edited February 14, 2011 by Hyperduck Quack Quack

[Traktion]

One thing the Torylition could do that would buy them some popularity is have a policy on top pay. There should be a cap of £100,000 on pay for anyone in the public sector AND for anyone employed by a company (PLC or Ltd), including directors and including bonuses. Also public sector organisations and companies should set the fees they pay outside contractors - not the other way round. In other words, if you offer to fix the roof on a school, you don't give a quote or estimate, the council tells you what they'll pay you and you take it or leave it. That system works for the supermarkets when they buy stuff from farmers and the customer benefits.

And people who want to earn big, big money would have to do so as either as sole traders or members of a partnership.

Why cap private sector pay? If the company is making profit and the shareholders are happy/able to pay good salaries, then fair enough.

Public sector pay is completely different. It is a direct cost via taxation - there is no market mechanism for deciding their pay, just a demand and a threat of jail. 100k cap on the public sector seems completely fair though. If they want more, they can justify their qualities in the private sector.

[erranta]

Apparently David can trace his blood line back to the original tribes of Israel.

As far as his salary goes it would have to be merely beer and fag money as he would earn about 10 X that in a real job.

He might be like JFK and donate his salary to a charity.

Pure 'mythology' that Cameron has developed about himself!

His great grandfather was Jewish; yet not his great grandmother.

That jewish great grandfather had a daughter (who was not halachically jewish, as she had only a jewish father, not a jewish mother). This was his grandmother - or, precisely, his father's mother.

So, if his father's mother was half-jewish (and not halachically jewish at all) - he doesn't even have one Jewish grandparent - let alone a jewish mother!

Meercat = APES or Monkeys

The 'illumined' by shady degrees, are FRANKLY taking the piss out of the general, ignorant proles!

late 15c., "monkey," from Du. meerkat "monkey" (related to O.H.G. mericazza), apparently from meer "lake" + kat "cat."

But cf. Hindi markat, Skt. markata "ape," which could serve as a source of a Teutonic folk-etymology, even though the word was in Germanic before any known direct contact with India.

[fluffy666]

The green eyed monster syndrome ?

Although a crude pay cap probably wouldn't work, there is a serious problem of managers rewarding themselves as if they were entrepreneurs.

In a functioning capitalist society, the way to wealth should be by creating a business introducing new or improved products/services, often at personal risk finance-wise. So you end up owning a big chunk of a productive business, and hence being able to afford the Porsches, yachts, quadruple bypass surgery, etc that goes with it.

But we have a situation where a lot of people are getting these rewards basically by being managers, or employees in the case of traders. In that case their pay is more to do with being in the right place at the right time than any particular effort; in the case of banks it is very much that a relatively small number of managers and traders, who are involved in the business on a day to day basis, can easily conspire to rip off a large number of small shareholders and pension-fund-owners who have to trust them. In the case of government, of course, council leaders p[ay themselves this kind of cash because no one is stopping them.

[Laughing Gnome]

Allegedly we are a democratic society.. but I've never heard anyone say they wanted to shut down the libraries in town and give a generous performance bonus to the council boss.

I also am a supporter of the Bloo Loo pay reform plan of 50% reduction on anything over 25k.

+1. Simple and effective.

[goldbug9999]

A friend of mine is probably one of the 15 since he is a council chief exec and earns well over 200k.

From his descriptions of the long hours strife and pressure involved I wouldn't do that job for the same money. Being CEO of a council is not a sedate paper shuffling role, your responsible for an organisation that is as large and complex as blue chip company. One of the reasons they pay these apparently "astronomical" salaries is to attract real talent from outside the civil service (this is my friends first public sector job).

You just have to ask yourself if its worth saving the 150k to downgrade the most important role in the council to that a career pen pushing civil servant.

[winkie]

A friend of mine is probably one of the 15 since he is a council chief exec and earns well over 200k.

From his descriptions of the long hours strife and pressure involved I wouldn't do that job for the same money. Being CEO of a council is not a sedate paper shuffling role, your responsible for an organisation that is as large and complex as blue chip company. One of the reasons they pay these apparently "astronomical" salaries is to attract real talent from outside the civil service (this is my friends first public sector job).

You just have to ask yourself if its worth saving the 150k to downgrade the most important role in the council to that a career pen pushing civil servant.

Well if they think they are worth that amount of money.....they will have to justify their worth to us...what have they done to deserve it?....why couldn't someone else do far better for less....I believe they could and would.

[interestrateripoff]

A friend of mine is probably one of the 15 since he is a council chief exec and earns well over 200k.

From his descriptions of the long hours strife and pressure involved I wouldn't do that job for the same money. Being CEO of a council is not a sedate paper shuffling role, your responsible for an organisation that is as large and complex as blue chip company. One of the reasons they pay these apparently "astronomical" salaries is to attract real talent from outside the civil service (this is my friends first public sector job).

You just have to ask yourself if its worth saving the 150k to downgrade the most important role in the council to that a career pen pushing civil servant.

What strife is causing them to have long hours?

[erranta]

The green-eyed monster syndrome is perfectly justified here when the country is being ripped off by top bosses in both the public and private sectors raking in more and more money for themselves just because they've got the gold key to the gold safe full of gold coins.

I'm a leftist, I believe in fairness. Life isn't always fair but that doesn't mean the we should all throw up our hands and accept 'legalised theft' by people at the top of the food chain.

The incestuous "Institute of Directors" were giving themselves massive wage rises, way above inflation, for at least a decade. Here's how.

When they asked for a pay rise, which then has to be authorised by the board of their company, the 'con-sultants' they employed to see if the wage rise was fair were fellow members of the Institute!

They then returned the 'favours' when their 'I.O.D fellow members were due for a rise.

So they conned the shareholders and companies for Millions £££'s Xtra!

They don't give a toss about pay freezes or inflationary pressures coz they are more than comfortable on much bigger salaries than they should be on!

The Civil service/Chief executives saw these huge pay rises going on which is why so many demanded and got pay levels way above Prime Minister wages during labours watch!

We can glaringly see the con when you look at out-of-kilter public servant wages at director/chief exec levels.

Edited February 14, 2011 by erranta