The top three highest-earning charity executives, as identified by Charity Finance’s biennial survey of CEOs at the top-100 charities, all work at healthcare organisations.

And the majority of the CEOs in the list who earn less than £100,000, work at international development charities.

Charity Finance’s Chief Executives Survey 2013 analyses the pay, background and demographics of chief executives at the largest 100 charities by income, as based on the Charity 100 Index. They are responsible for a combined £12.2bn in income.

This year's survey found the average salary for a CEO in the list is £164,971 – slightly down on £166,048 in 2011. When the top five earners – all paid over £300,000 – are removed – the average salary falls to £145,862.

The top three earners in the survey all work at healthcare charities. The charitable status of fee-charging healthcare charities has recently come under scrutiny from private-sector competitors unhappy at what they say is an unfair tax advantage.

In June, HCA, an American private healthcare company, publicly called on the UK government to change the tax system for fee-charging healthcare charities. HCA, which runs six private hospitals in London, stated that it pays £75m in tax but said it would pay £50m less if it was a charity. Keith Briddlestone, commercial director said: “The issue for us is that they can be more competitive on price.”

HCA has published a report on the issue, which examines other fee-charging charities including Nuffield Health and London Clinic Trustees, also in our list of top three earners.

The top three earners are –

David Mobbs at Nuffield Health	£850,000 - £859,000
Philip Sugarman at St Andrew's Healthcare	£552,005
Paul Holdom at London Clinic Trustees	£410,000 - £420,000
(Highest earner as confirmed by survey participants, or last published salary band of charity's highest-paid employee)

The survey also looked at CEOs who earned less than £100,000 in light of a recent media storm criticising charity executives, especially those at international development charities, who earn over £100,000.

Twelve charity CEOs in the survey earned under £100,000, and among these seven lead international NGOs.

For the full survey results, as well as a report of what these CEOs think about leadership, click here.