A council has seen a 73.5% increase in the number of its employees who earn more than £50,000 a year, but has attributed the rise to national pay awards.
Middlesbrough Council documents being presented to cllrs on Thursday 17 April explain that there has been an increase in the number of council staff and school employees who earn upwards of £50,000.
The increase has seen a rise from 155 people in 2022/23 on higher salaries to 269 in 2023/24. This is a year on year increase of 114 staff members. Of these 269 employees, 216 are deemed to be council employees while 53 work in the town’s schools.
The council explains that the level at which employee earnings information must be disclosed does not change but employee salaries do increase each year as a result of the national pay award, so an increase in officers going above the threshold is to be expected.
A document entitled “Analysis of Staffing Costs 2023/24” is going before the council’s audit committee. The document highlights “concern” that has previously been raised by members regarding the number of officers receiving remuneration (salary and employee benefits) of over £50,000 annually.
Ahead of this year’s budget vote, the Middlesbrough Independent Cllrs Association (MICA) group of cllrs from across the town took issue with the number of council employees earning more than £50,000 a year.
During 2023/24, two of the council’s salary grades rose above a significant threshold. The team manager salary rose above £50,000 and the senior manager salary rose above £60,000. Council documents state that solely as a result of the pay award, an additional 99 employees on these grades have had to be disclosed.
All five Tees Valley authorities saw significant increases in the number of staff on more than £50,000 annually, although Middlesbrough was the most affected by the change from 2022/23 to 2023/24. Neighbouring authority Redcar and Cleveland saw an increase from 182 to 245 employees who were on the receiving end of more than £50,000 a year.
Interestingly, in 2020/21, Middlesbrough only had 94 employees earning over £50,000 a year, compared to Redcar and Cleveland seeing 176 staff earning this amount or more. Meanwhile, sandwiching Middlesbrough from the other side is Stockton Council, which had 158 employees earning more than £50,000 in 2020/21.
Documents going in front of the audit committee pick up on this. “Middlesbrough was relatively low in total numbers in the earlier years but has caught up with Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton Council’s (which are of similar size). Further research would be needed to exactly why this change has happened but may reflect some of the recruitment issues experienced in recent years”, the report explained.
Council documents further detail that in 2023/24, the council held total salary budgets of £120.3m to cover just over 2,800 full time employees. As a result of issues surrounding recruitment to specific posts and the need to offset other budget pressures, only 2,500 staff were employed, with agency staff covering some vacancies. The council added that the actual total spend on pay (including agency staff) was £114.6m, which led to a saving of £5.7m, “which was used to alleviate the significant overspend”.
