Pay, grading structure and senior salaries

Pay multiple

The highest paid salary in this Authority is £224,438 per annum which is paid to the Chief Executive.

The current median average salary in this Authority (not including employees in schools maintained by the Authority) is £31,022 per annum (2026/27 pay award pending), which is up from £29,572 at February 2025. The ratio between the two salaries, the ‘pay multiple’ is 7.2:1 (down from 7.4:1 in February 2025).

This Authority does not have a policy on maintaining or reaching a specific ‘pay multiple’, however the Authority is conscious of the need to ensure that the salary of the highest paid employee is not excessive and is consistent with the needs of the Authority.

Pay and grading structure

This information about pay and the grading structure is available to download from Northern Data Hub.

Gender pay gap

Following legislation in 2017, we have again published the council's 'gender pay gap' figures for 2025.

The gender pay gap reflects the overall difference between how much women and men are paid but does not take into account the type of work people do. It should not be confused with unequal pay, which is the unlawful practice of paying males and females differently for performing the same or similar work, or work of equal value.

The figures have been published in response to national legislation which requires employers with more than 250 employees to publish gender pay gap information each year. The aim of this is to increase awareness and improve pay equality across the country.

With a 'median' gender pay gap of 3.8% for 2025, the authority has reduced the gender pay gap by two thirds since reporting started and still compares favourably with the national average of 6.9%.

The gender pay gap is measured on a single day, rather than, for example, being measured over the course of a year. The gender pay gap for 2025 was measured on 31 March 2025.

To read our gender pay gap figures in full, please take a look at our Gender Pay Gap Report 2025 (PDF).