Executive Pay at U.K. Schools as High as at Aid Charities

While six-figure compensation for the heads of leading aid charities has drawn fire in Britain, including critical comments from the head of the regulatory Charity Commission, the country’s elite private schools are even more generous to executives, The Guardian writes.

An analysis of wages at top tax-exempt schools found several that pay multiple staff members £100,000 ($156,000) and more, with the highest packages exceeding those of the best-compensated heads of humanitarian charities. At Eton College, which Charity Commission Chairman William Shawcross attended, 40 employees earn in the six figures.

Another U.K. daily, The Telegraph, reported earlier this month that among the 14 relief charities that make up the Disasters Emergency Committee, a coordinating group, 30 staff members were earning more than £100,000. Mr. Shawcross said at the time that rising executive pay by aid groups could bring charities “into disrepute.”

Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, called it “curious” that Mr. Shawcross “singled out international development charities over pay” and said those groups have the same mandate as private schools “to pay good salaries to attract the best talent.”