More than 100 workers at a Black Country council earn more than £50,000 a year, figures reveal.
A breakdown of the biggest earners in the Wolverhampton authority shows 116 employees earned between £50,000 and £130,000.
Of those, five took home £90,000 or more – on par with a cabinet minister’s salary. The best paid bosses include chief executive Richard Carr, who takes home the best package of around £120,000. The breakdown has made interesting reading for the new Tory-Liberal Democrat alliance, which is eager to keep council tax rises down in the city next May.
Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, Liberal Democrat finance spokesman, said: “I think I’ll apply for a job myself after this. I know of a few people below Richard Carr on those sort of amounts but I didn’t know the full picture.
“It’s very clear that we need to look at this seriously. With the way the council finances are, I think everything will have to be looked at in depth,” he said.
Bosses are under pressure to cut the wages bill, with the costs increasing from £300 million in 2006/07 to £309 million last year according to the books.
The authority is also facing raising wages for the majority of workers earning below £50,000 under the single status evaluation, a government drive to equal out pay in local authorities.
Unions are discussing the deal with council bosses.
As the Express & Star reported this week, the ruling Tory-Liberal Democrat alliance is creating a special panel to block new recruitment into the council unless absolutely necessary.
The panel, which will be staffed by the cabinet, will try to fill jobs that come available by redeploying workers from other council jobs unless it is deemed to be harming frontline services.
The city council currently has a staffing turnover of 12 per cent and more than 13,000 workers.
Under the Audit Commission Act, all local authorities nationwide are obliged to open their books for a month each year in order to allow the public to inspect them.
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