Charity chief executives have recently found themselves under the spotlight in one area more than any other; their salaries. Plenty has been said about the public objecting to anyone at a charity earning over £100k a year, but we have been looking at how we got to this stage. Our data, drawn from the country’s top 50 most recognisable charities, looks back at CEO pay from 2007-2012 and what drives it.
We discovered that CEO salaries have broadly increased at the same rate as charitable income and that there has been something of a rebalancing in the sector, with higher salaries increasing far more slowly than the lower ones.
The main results:
- Total income has increased by 17.7% (an average of 3.5% per year), with voluntary income up 11.6% (an average of 2.3% per year)
- CEO salaries have risen 18% - almost exactly in line with charities' income
- Staff costs have gone up 24.2% (an average of 4.85% a year)
- There has been a re-balancing of salaries across the sector – those paying under £100k in 2007 have increased salaries by 38% on average, while those over £100k have increased pay by just 6%
- Big charities do pay their CEOs more
The main report is available for download in the right hand corner of this page.