Like many who saw the headline in the Shropshire Star last Thursday, I was shocked and appalled. Shocked by the scale of the percentage pay rise of nearly 50% and appalled by the amount in cash terms of £47,000.
Posted by David Walker on Thursday, 10 May 2018
In cash terms, the £47,000 pay rise is vastly bigger than the £24,200 average annual pay in Shropshire. In fact, the rise is nearly double the average wage. If the recommended rise is accepted the Chief Executive will be paid 6x the average pay in Shropshire.
By contrast, the lowest paid employees at Shropshire Council are paid £16,449 – well under the average for Shropshire. The Chief Executive would be paid over 9x the scale of the lowest. Most employees at Shropshire Hall will be getting a 6% rise.
Thursday’s Full Council Agenda: http://shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=125&MID=3576
In percentage terms, when many hard-working people are still only getting a 1 or 2% pay rises, if they are lucky, this rise of nearly 50% won’t go down well. In PR terms this rise, if approved, will send out all of the wrong messages. It will be a slap in the face for ordinary hard-working people, even if the Chief Executive has earned a pay rise of nearly 50%. IF the chief executive pay is out of step there are better ways of fixing the problem. This pay rise of nearly 50% does little to address pay gaps or inequality in the organisation.
Andy Boddington has done some more to break this down and gives some more background on how Shropshire Council got into this mess on his blog here:
Council chief executive in line for £47K basic pay boost while council staff to get six percent
What this all says about the running of Shropshire Council is up for debate. It doesn’t say much about the past or current corporate governance of the Conservative Administration that they are in this mess. Current priorities like buying Shrewsbury shopping centres or refurbishing Shirehall, all fail to address the black hole in the budget. Symptomatic of broken Shirehall and if it isn’t careful soon to be broke Shirehall.