New pay rise scandal hits charity fat cat
THE fat cat chief executive of Scotland’s biggest animal charity has bagged another bumper pay-rise.
newly released accounts show that controversial SSPCA chief Stuart Earley’s basic pay has gone up from £185,000 to £190,855.
The salary rise of 3.2% in the last year comes despite frontline staff at the Scottish Society for the Protection of Animals getting just a 1.2% increase.
There was a storm of outrage last year when The Sunday Post revealed that Mr Earley was earning an annual pay packet of £216,000 – making him one of Scotland’s highest-paid charity chiefs.
Questions were tabled in the Scottish Parliament after we reported that the package was made up of a basic wage of £185,000 and a bonus of £31,000.1,000.
now it has emerged that Mrr Earley’s basic salary went up in 2015 – while thee charity’s incomee fell.
His inflationbusting basic pay increase means his wages easily dwarf the pay of both First Minister nicola Sturgeon – who is on £ 144,68787 – and PM Theresa May, who earns £143,462.
Cut the averagege pay of hard-working SSPCA staff increased by 1.2% in the last year – giving his 358 employees an annual salary of £21,654, a fraction of what Mr Earley earns.
John Robins of pressure group Animal Concern said: “This pay is nothing short of ridiculous.
“The Scottish SPCA cannot justify paying one person a salary that could pay for seven or eight good campaigners.
“Yes if you are good you deserve to be well paid but it should be reflective of what contemporaries in similar fields are getting paid.
“This ludicrous wage is clearly out of sync from what other animal charity CIOs get.”
david Craig, the author of the Great Charity Scandal, said Mr Earley’s remuneration was out of step with the goodwill of Scots who donated large sums to the animal rescue charity.
Mr Craig said: “The fact that he continues to take pay increases that he knows will reflect badly on his organisation shows he has little self-awareness.”
A Scottish Sabour spokesman said: “Organisations such as the