Academy school leaders in England face pay cap to curb ‘banker-style’ salaries

The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is expected to introduce a £174,000 cap and limit future raises to those agreed for teachers. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images View image in fullscreen The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is expected to introduce a £174,000 cap and limit future raises to those agreed for teachers. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty Images Academy school leaders in England face pay cap to curb ‘banker-style’ salaries Nearly 100 academy chief executives earn more than £200,000 a year, and at least one more than £500,000 The era of academy school leaders in England receiving “banker-style salaries” and hefty annual increases may soon be over, with the government to introduce limits on executive pay. Nearly 100 academy chief executives earn more than £200,000 a year, with pay in academy trusts equating to anything from less than £5 a pupil to more than £150. Only a quarter of the high-earners were women. The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, is expected to announce a cap of £174,000 on academy trust executive salaries, with government approval required to advertise pay packages above that amount. She is also expected to limit future pay increases to the same annual awards agreed for teachers. An announcement is likely to come on Wednesday, followed by the annual pay recommendation for teachers in England from the government’s independent review body. VAT on private school fees not caused exodus to state sector, says Bridget Phillipson Read more Sources told the Guardian that Phillipson will require trusts running academy schools, including multi-academy trusts (Mats) responsible for state schools, to follow executive pay rules similar to those used in the NHS and further education colleges. The Department for Education declined to comment, but a government source said: “This is a straightforward matter of fairness, for both the taxpayer and teachers. “Academy trusts are doing brilliant work for millions of children. But we simply cannot have double-figure pay rises on top of six-figure salaries. These are salaries paid for by the taxpayer, and excessive rates risk diverting funding from frontline teaching.” The move comes after the government said in February’s schools white paper that it wanted to tackle “unjustifiable” executive pay. A recent survey of academy trust executive pay by Schools Week found that Dan Moynihan, the chief executive of the Harris Federation, which runs 55 academies, was the highest paid with a salary of £530,000 last year. Among other high-earners was Dayo Olukoshi, the executive principal of Brampton Manor trust, which runs two schools, with a salary of £350,000 after a £20,000 pay rise. Around one in four academy trust chief executives received a pay rise greater than that given to classroom teachers in 2024-25, many receiving double-digit increases. A Labour source said that “banker-style” salaries were inappropriate for administe