Council chief executives get paid half as much as their public sector counterparts, a top financial consultancy has found.

Despite increasing criticism of chief executive pay levels, a survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers found that, when combined, council chief executives' salary, pension and bonuses were, on average, 51% less than their private sector equivalents.

The consultancy claimed the ‘perception' of chief executive's pay was the issue. Minister, John Healey, has been one of the fiercest critics of rising salaries, alongside pressure group the Taxpayers' Alliance. However, sensitivity around the recession has also led to the spotlight shining on pay and conditions for top council bosses.

Steve Beet, head of local government at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: ‘Public perception of local government pay is an issue, but in reality their packages are considerably lower than their counterparts in other sectors.' However, Mr Beet also felt that council CEO salaries may get unfairly targeted because of a lack of transparency over how they are calculated.

He said: ‘Local government leaders must establish more robust and transparent governance processes for making decision on levels of pay so that more emphasis is placed on showing how pay is benchmarked and linked to performance.'

He suggested a local government equivalent of a private sector remuneration committee to advise on pay.

A spokesman for chief executive's association, SOLACE, said: ‘We think this survey understates the differences between public and private sectors.'

The SOLACE research in April showed much greater disparity and pointed out that private sector salaries were only around 60% of total remuneration with the rest made up with bonuses.

SOLACE also found pay was low compared to other part of the public sector.

www.pwc.co.uk/