Under section 38 of the Localism Act 2011, we're required to produce a pay policy statement each year. The statement has to include our policy on pay dispersion, which is the relationship between remuneration of chief officers and that of other staff.
Guidance under section 40 of the Act recommends that the pay multiple is included in the statement, as a way of illustrating our approach to pay dispersion. The pay multiple should be defined as the ratio between the highest paid taxable earnings for the given year (including base salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits-in-kind) and the median earnings figure of the whole of the authority's workforce.
The measure must:
- cover all elements of remuneration that can be valued, eg all taxable earnings for the given year, including base salary, variable pay, bonuses, allowances and the cash value of any benefits-in-kind
- use the median earnings figure as the denominator, which should be that of all employees of the local authority on a fixed date each year. This needs to coincide with reporting at the end of the financial year.
- exclude changes in pension benefits, due to their variety and complexity which cannot be accurately included in a pay multiple disclosure
View our pay policy statement for 2024/25. All amounts are net of VAT unless stated otherwise.