A cap should be levied on top people’s pay in the Welsh public sector, according to Plaid Cymru leadership candidate Leanne Wood.
The Plaid AM for South Wales Central has called on First Minister Carwyn Jones to look at introducing a maximum wage so that executives at the top of an organisation are not allowed to earn above an agreed ratio linked to the lowest paid worker’s earnings.
Leanne Wood said “We have seen a lot in the news over recent few days about obscene levels of wages and bonus payments within the banking sector.
“There have also been some eyebrow-raising salaries and packages in the public sector. Sky-high salaries and packages for chief executives and vice chancellors seem to rise-year-on-year regardless of recession and this has caused a lot of anger among many rank and file public workers who are being squeezed on their pay and conditions.”
Last year following a Freedom of Information request, Leanne Wood revealed that Cardiff University’s Vice Chancellor’s salary and pension package rose almost 30 per cent in just five years to £245,000 in 2010. Another request last year discovered that scores of Welsh hospital managers earned more than £100,000 a year with a top salary of more than £200,000 per annum.
The First Minister said: “It is important that chief executives and those who in position of leadership in the public sector set a good example. It clearly isn’t sustainable for those at the top to accept large increases when those who are more poorly paid have to accept a pay freeze or even reductions. That is something no public sector chief executive or head should be doing.”
