The number of public sector ‘high earners’ rose by 14 per cent to 442 last year – despite continuing austerity.
Some 442 people were being paid more than £150,000 as of September – with the top ranked, Network Rail chief Mark Carne, raking in up to £750,000.
More than half those on the list had moved up a pay band over the past year, while the total pay bill spiked from £72million to £82million.
The figures, disclosed by the government alongside a raft of other ‘transparency’ material, could fuel anger among rank and file public sector workers about long-running pay restraint.
Network Rail chief Mark Carne (pictured left) was listed as raking in up to £750,000. Tony Douglas, equipment chief at the MoD (pictured right), was earning up to £290,000 – although he has now taken a job as chief executive at airline Etihad
The PM’s chief of staff and former Tory MP Gavin Barwell is paid £140,000 a year, according to details disclosed by the government today
Ministers have announced they are easing the 1 per cent cap on wage rises with inflation running at more than 3 per cent.
But they have yet to confirm any significant hikes. MailOnline revealed yesterday that MPs are due to get a 1.8 per cent rise from April.
The latest ‘high earners’ list from the Cabinet office has 442 entries, up from 389 last year.
The top name was Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne, whose package was said to be worth £750k – five times the PM’s salary. Last year’s list said he was on £685,000.
Two other civil servants were on more than £500,000, 14 were said to be receiving more than £300k, and 29 over £250,000.
All the top 10 work for either Network Rail or the High Speed 2 rail project.
Some 70 Network Rail staff were earning more than the Prime Minister, up from 48 last year. The HS2 project accounted for more than 50 people on the list.
Other high payers include the Ministry of Defence, with 17 names, the Civil Aviation Authority with 12, and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority with 10.
Tony Douglas, equipment chief at the MoD, was earning up to £290,000 – although he has now taken a job as chief executive at airline Etihad.
That was more than the Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Stuart Peach, who was on up to £260,000.
Separately, taxpayers footed a near GBP9 million bill for Government special advisers in the last financial year.
The total pay bill for special advisers, known as Spads, in administrations led by David Cameron and subsequently Theresa May between April 2016 and April 2017 was £7.3million.
Severance payments totalling £1.5million were also paid to outgoing special advisers when Mr Cameron left office.
Mr Cameron’s Spads cost £2.4million in pay from April 1 2016 until Mrs May took over on July 13 that year, and her Spads were paid £4.9million to the end of the financial year on March 31 2017.
The PM’s chief of staff and former Tory MP Gavin Barwell, who lost his seat to Labour in Mrs May’s botched general election, and Number 10 director of communications Robbie Gibb have replaced Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill as the highest paid Spads in the Government. They are paid £140,000 a year each.
But Mr Gibb is being paid £15,000 more than his predecessor in the role, Katie Perrior.
The PM’s official spokesman would not be drawn on questions about why Mr Gibb was paid thousands of pounds more than Ms Perrior.
In total the Government currently employs 88 Spads, who are temporary civil servants, down one from 89 last year.
Under Labour in 2009-2010 the cost of Spads was £6.8million and there were 71 on the government payroll.
The Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Stuart Peach is paid up to £260,000, far more than the Prime Minister’s £150,000 salary. He is pictured with Mrs May last year