£26 million for top earners in the States

Tuesday 27 May 2014

The number of States employees earning over £100,000 per year dropped slightly last year but the top 195 earners still ended up taking home more than £26 million between them.

Figures in the States accounts show that 195 public sector employees – around one in 35 of the States employees - earned more than £100,000 in combined salary, pension and other benefits in 2013.

That number has dropped slightly from 2012, when 198 people earned over the £100,000 mark.

More than half (99 out of 195) of the top earners work for the Health and Social Services department.

The figures also confirmed that no compensation payments were made to senior managers last year. The issue of pay-offs to States employees became a major one when former chief executive Bill Ogley and former Health chief Mike Pollard received payments totalling around £800,000 when they left their posts.

The figures show that the 195 top earners were made up of: 88 doctors and consultants, 58 civil servants, 32 lawyers and other office holders, eight headteachers and Highlands College managers, five air traffic controllers and four police officers.

The very top earner in the States – identified only in the figures as a top legal figure/office holder and thought to be Bailiff Sir Michael Birt – earned between £300,000 and £309,999 in 2013.

According to separate figures for 2013, the average annual pay across all sectors for an Islander in a full-time job was £34,320, compared to an average of £44,720 in the public sector and an average of £47,840 in the finance sector.