The Scottish SPCA has been criticised for paying its chief executive £185,000 as part of a newspaper investigation into senior pay at Scottish voluntary organisations.
The Sunday Post has accused the sector of hiking up chief executives’ wages as the “result of an intensifying arms race for donations” after research conducted by the newspaper found that the number of staff in in Scotland’s largest voluntary organisations who earned more than £60,000 increased by 26 per cent over three years.
The newspaper looked at 100 charities by income, but after stripping out religious organisations, educational facilities such as private schools and universities, arm’s-length council bodies, scientific research organisations, think-tanks and philanthropic groups set up by well-off families it was left with a sample size of 15 charities.
Across those 15 charities there were 57 members of staff earning more than £60,000 in 2014 when in 2012 the same organisations paid 45 people more than £60,000.
Scottish SPCA, which had an income of more than £13m for the year to December 2013, paid its chief executive, Stuart Earley, £185,000, an increase of £15,000 on his 2012 salary.
A spokesman for the charity said: “Since Stuart Earley took over as chief executive in 2007 we have become one of the most successful charities in the UK.
"This has included developing the largest education programme of its kind in the UK, doubling the number of animals we're able to help and investing £15m on extending and building new rescue centres, more than at any time in our history.
"We've managed to do all of this with an intentionally small management team and by spending less overall on executive pay than most comparable charities.
"Chief executive pay increases have been limited to no more than 2 per cent above the rate of inflation by our board's remuneration committee, which takes into account external advice and salaries at similarly successful organisations."
The newspaper also highlighted the chief executive of cancer charity Maggie’s Centre, Laura Lee, who earns up to £120,000 and the bosses at Quarriers, Capability Scotland, Scottish Autism and SAMH who earn around £100,000.
The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations criticised the research.
A spokesman said: “We would question the assumption on the ‘rise of charity staff of Scotland’s biggest charities enjoying wages of above £60,000 a year’. As in any other sector, there are a lot of considerations to setting senior salaries in charities.
"A senior role in a charity comes with significant levels of responsibilities and demands. The leaders of Scotland’s largest charities manage average annual budgets of £37m and 1,215 staff. Like any other post, the level of pay should reflect the requirements of the job.
"The increasing demand on Scotland's charities has meant that many organisations have restructured and cut back the top salary but increased the number of staff at all levels to cope with this ever increasing demand.
"SCVO has said clearly that it’s important for charities to have a policy to determine their organisations approach to staff pay – a ratio of lowest to highest paid staff member is the simplest.
"We also encourage charities to be completely transparent about what they pay senior staff so they can be answerable about it.”
