Scots earn top senior pay
Scotland’s most senior public sector workers enjoy average salaries almost £2,000 higher than their English counterparts, according to analysis of the Bureau’s public pay database.
The average pay of Scottish public sector employees in the data, was £130,545: almost £2,000 ahead of the English average pay of £128,579.
Welsh high earners had the lowest average of £124,068, around £4,500 less than their English counterparts. The Northern Irish wage just tops that of the English by almost £235.
However, while England’s top public sector workers have lower average salaries than their Scottish and Northern Irish counterparts, England’s top officials are far more likely than their counterparts to earn a six-figure salary.
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England has the most public servants earning over £100,000. Of the 4.8 million English public sector workers, 31,860 enjoy a six-figure salary – around 7 in every 1,000.
Scotland came just below this with 6 per 1,000, Wales behind them with 5, while finally Northern Ireland had 4 in every 1,000 – just over half as many as England.
Despite having the highest average salary overall, Scotland topped just one of the categories – the judiciary. Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord Hamilton, was the highest earning Scottish judge, with a remuneration package totalling £214,165.
Northern Ireland had the highest average salaries in the education, NHS and police categories. Their top-earning public servants in education earned on average over £10,000 more than those in England and £20,000 more than those in Wales.
England had the highest average salaries at the BBC with director general Mark Thompson taking home £838,000 last year, including his bonus and other supplementary payments – almost £700,000 more than the Prime Minister.
England had the highest average top salaries in local government, central government, fire and rescue and quangos. Quango chief Peter Hendy of Transport for London is the highest earner in this category with a total salary of £393,551 in 2009-10.
