Median total earnings for NHS trust chief executives in England reached £158,800 last year, reveals the NHS Boardroom Pay report from Incomes Data Services (IDS).
According to IDS, 12% of NHS non-medical chiefs earned more than £150,000 last year, while 69% of NHS medical directors earned more than £150,000 over the same period.
The report found that the basic salary for NHS non-medical chief executives rose by an average of 4.5% during the year, three times higher than the Department of Health’s management pay guidance increase of 1.5%.
Steve Tatton, editor of the report, said: “For those wanting to see NHS directors’ pay curbed, our latest pay findings may come as a disappointment.
“The government has stressed the importance of senior staff in the public sector showing leadership in the exercise of pay restraint in the current economic climate. With salary rises running at these levels, such restraint so far does not seem to have been a feature of boardroom pay deliberations.
“The government wants to bear down on senior executive pay in the public sector, yet it also it wants to see decisions made locally without interference from central authorities. The issue for NHS organisations is will they be free to pay their senior executives what they decide is necessary or will they have to follow externally imposed pay restraints.”
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