Around one in six academy trusts paid their top earners more than £150,000 in pay and pension contributions, the most recent accounts show.
The number of academy trusts paying these high-level packages increased from 340 trusts (11.6 per cent) in 2018-19 to 473 (17 per cent) in the most recent set of figures for 2019-20.
The proportion of trusts paying a six-figure pay and pension package of between £100,000 and £150,000 has also increased from just over half of trusts to almost two-thirds in the space of a year.
The Department for Education says that it has taken steps to challenge and reinforce the need for “robust evidence processes” in setting pay.
The DfE also says it is reviewing the figures for 2019-20 to identify trusts that are “outliers” on leadership pay compared to similar trusts.
The Education Skills and Funding Agency - which is responsible for overseeing academy finances - has previously written to trusts paying in excess of £150,000 or paying multiple members of staff between £100,000 and £150,000 asking them to explain the salary decisions.
The DfE’s new Academy Schools Sector in England Consolidated Annual Report and Accounts show that 52.5 per cent of trusts (1,535) paid at least one person between £100,000 and £150,000 in 2018-19. This increased to 63.5 per cent (1,772 trusts) in 2019-20.
The figures for the number of top-paying academy trusts are markedly higher than the data from two years earlier because the DfE has included pension contributions in its measure for top earners since 2018-19.
Figures published two years ago for 2017-18, when pension contributions were excluded, show that just four per cent of trusts (146) were recorded as paying more than £150,000 while around a third (988) were paying salaries of between £100,000 and £150,000.
Errors found in last year’s academy accounts
The new accounts also show that the DfE has identified errors in its previous year’s data for academy finances.
It says these were identified during a second data collection for 2018-19 figures.
This has resulted in it publishing corrected figures showing an increase in the number and proportion of academy trusts paying top packages in that year.
The original figures published for 2018-19 showed 11.1 per cent of trusts (325) paying more than £150,000 but now another 15 trusts have been added to the total.
The number of trusts paying between £100,000 and £150,000 in pay and pensions has also been increased from 1,387 (47.5 per cent) to 1,535 (52.5 per cent) as a result of the corrected data.
Challenging MATs on top pay
The DfE says that it has taken steps to challenge and reinforce the need for “robust evidence processes” in setting pay.
This includes publicly naming those trusts paying more than £150,000, as it has done in the annex of the new report, and requiring that academy trusts should publish details about the number of employees who receive more than £100,000 in £10,000 bandings.
Last year, Tes revealed that more than a third of a group of multi-academy trusts questioned by the government over their high chief executive salaries in 2019 went on to award their top earners more pay.
An analysis of last year’s accounts found that there are now at least seven state school leaders who are earning salaries of £250,000 or more.
