RNLI pay

[bromleybysea]

A letter in today's Times reveals that there are 28 members of the RNLI's staff paid between £60k and £80k and 12 between £80k and £140k. Why?

 

[Alcyone]

Presumably because the editors felt that people would be interested in reading it?

 

[Highland Bear]

Because they are being paid to do a senior job and if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys! As a "Governor" I'm quite happy that my subs go towards paying decent salaries for good managers.

 

[fireball]

I would think that because in any organisation (charity or not) there are certain roles that require a lot of time, effort, experience etc which will equate to a full time job (and then some!). It is then entirely reasonable to fill those roles with paid staff.

 

[dylanwinter]

before judging either way

it would be nice to know what their job descriptions are

but we live in a country where a primary school head is apparently worth over £200,000 a year

and a middle ranking BBC spread sheet jockey is worth double that

and that is before we stray into the territory of the city of London

so my measuring stick of value is clearly in depeerate need of re-calibrating

Dylan

 

[DogWatch]

A letter in today's Times reveals that there are 28 members of the RNLI's staff paid between £60k and £80k and 12 between £80k and £140k. Why?

politics of envy?

 

[Searush]

Hey, Dylan, you forgot the footy ballers & popstars & film actors. Not to mention advertising execs fashion designers & legal eagles, etcetera, etcetera.

Were would we be without all these wonderful people?

Do you remember the space ship full of middle managers & hairdressers etc sent to colonise the new Earth & prepare for the rest of us "arriving later" in the Hitch-Hiker's guide? I always thought that was a great idea spoilt by being too narrow in its choice of personnel.

 

[bromleybysea]

politics of envy?

Certainly not. I just wondered why an organisation like the RNLI needs 40 people paid over £60k. In over 40 years experience working in the public and voluntary sector I have found that those paid the most are often the most keen on screwing the low paid, many of whom put in as many hours as those paid far more than them, often doing jobs that most people wouldn't touch with a barge-pole. And as a manager myself, I know that my job is considerably easier and better-rewarded than most of the people I manage.

 

[john_morris_uk]

but we live in a country where a primary school head is apparently worth over £200,000 a yearDylan

My wife is a Primary School Headteacher and she doesn't get anywhere near one quarter of £200,000 - so don't believe all you read in the papers.

If you look into the details of the case that hit the headlines, "Mr Elms, who runs a school of 400 pupils, was paid a basic salary of £82,714 last year." (BBC news). He was then paid some back pay and some bonuses and the aggregated amount was quoted which is a bit disingenuous.

The only bit I don't understand when I looked at the package he received, was that he was given overtime payments. Its part of my wife's terms and conditions that there is no such thing as overtime if I remember correctly.

Regarding the pay of the RNLI, the chief exec is my old boss - ex Commanding Officer of Frigates and before that Nuclear Submarines. (He's also a yachtsman and has an Island Packet and wrote a very good book on IRPCS for yotties.) You don't recruit people of his calibre with £20k salaries.

 

[Sans Bateau]

One has to remember that the RNLI is the third emergency service, along with Fire and Ambulance. The last two are funded by the tax payer but the RNLI is funded by our donation, and long may it stay that way too.

I suspect if you were to take the trouble to look up the pay of the chief execs of the Ambulance service and the fire service, they will surely match the pay of which is quoted for RNLI.

 

[capnsensible]

If you pay peanuts, you get a monkey!

 

[jhr]

I suspect if you were to take the trouble to look up the pay of the chief execs of the Ambulance service and the fire service, they will surely match the pay of which is quoted for RNLI.

Indeed. Have a look here. £232,000 for the Chief Exec of the West Midlands Ambulance Trust.

£140k is presumably the Chief Executive. It's probably in the Upper Quartile for a CEO in the Voluntary Sector but the RNLI is a large and complex organisation and it doesn't seem like an excessive salary to me.

 

[sailorman]

One has to remember that the RNLI is the third emergency service, along with Fire and Ambulance. The last two are funded by the tax payer but the RNLI is funded by our donation, and long may it stay that way too.

I suspect if you were to take the trouble to look up the pay of the chief execs of the Ambulance service and the fire service, they will surely match the pay of which is quoted for RNLI.

I am also a Life Governor
they are Empire Builders none the less
rather like the old lady standing by the zebra crossing & minding her own business,then a chap comes along insisting he help her across the road.on gaining the pavement on the other side he found out she wasnt intending crossing at all.

 

[dylanwinter]

pay

My wife is a Primary School Headteacher and she doesn't get anywhere near one quarter of £200,000 - so don't believe all you read in the papers.

If you look into the details of the case that hit the headlines, "Mr Elms, who runs a school of 400 pupils, was paid a basic salary of £82,714 last year." (BBC news). He was then paid some back pay and some bonuses and the aggregated amount was quoted which is a bit disingenuous.

The only bit I don't understand when I looked at the package he received, was that he was given overtime payments. Its part of my wife's terms and conditions that there is no such thing as overtime if I remember correctly.

Regarding the pay of the RNLI, the chief exec is my old boss - ex Commanding Officer of Frigates and before that Nuclear Submarines. (He's also a yachtsman and has an Island Packet and wrote a very good book on IRPCS for yotties.) You don't recruit people of his calibre with £20k salaries.

I did not for one moment think that £200,000 is average - but the system must be pretty weird

- backpay (how did that accumulate unless it was one of those deals where they offer you a new salary and backdate it - if that happened, why did it happen

he was also getting money for serving on committees and working at other schools - when he had a full time job already. As I understand many of those committees met during normal working hours

and he got a loyalty bonus for not leaving his job - which sounds like a nice thing to have if you can get it.

The world is moving fast - I have never had a bonus, never had a backdated wage rise, and the last time I claimed overtime was when I was working on a farm bringing in the harvest aged 18.

I am alright though - my pension is with Equitable Life - so that was money well invested - I fully expect to enjoy a long and affluent retirement because my money has been so well looked after.


as for the RNLI - I think that the disclosre that it has a large number of high salary employees is worth putting in the public domain.

or maybe I am wrong and it would be better if we did not know about such things

 

[john_morris_uk]

I did not for one moment think that £200,000 is average - but the system must be pretty weird

- backpay (how did that accumulate unless it was one of those deals where they offer you a new salary and backdate it - if that happened, why did it happen

he was also getting money for serving on committees and working at other schools - when he had a full time job already. As I understand many of those committees met during normal working hours

and he got a loyalty bonus for not leaving his job - which sounds like a nice thing to have if you can get it.

The world is moving fast - I have never had a bonus, never had a backdated wage rise, and the last time I claimed overtime was when I was working on a farm bringing in the harvest aged 18.

I am alright though - my pension is with Equitable Life - so that was money well invested - I fully expect to enjoy a long and affluent retirement because my money has been so well looked after.


as for the RNLI - I think that the disclosre that it has a large number of high salary employees is worth putting in the public domain.

or maybe I am wrong and it would be better if we did not know about such things

I have no problem with the salaries of people being put in the public domain. If you research hard enough you will find out what my salary is, but the point that I was trying to make was that most Primary Headteachers don't get anywhere near £200k and when you look into it he didn't get a £200k salary either, so IMHO the world is not quite as mad as you were suggesting.

Interesting to note that he got paid for doing advisory work. In my wife's experience, such payments don't go to the person, but to the school budget of where they are head. The previous head of my wife's school used to make £xxk for the school on some outside work - my wife feels the pinch on her budget as that income source has gone as previous head who earned it has moved on and no longer does the work.

 

[DogWatch]

Certainly not. I just wondered why an organisation like the RNLI needs 40 people paid over £60k. In over 40 years experience working in the public and voluntary sector I have found that those paid the most are often the most keen on screwing the low paid, many of whom put in as many hours as those paid far more than them, often doing jobs that most people wouldn't touch with a barge-pole. And as a manager myself, I know that my job is considerably easier and better-rewarded than most of the people I manage.

 

[AllanJ]

Comparisons

As my mum used to say, "two wrongs don't make a right", so I am not sure that I would take the salaries of others, especially in clearly unusual circumstances (e.g. footballers) as evidence that big salaries are OK.
Salaries are always emotive and lead to the inevitable 'but a doctor saves lives and they only get X, vankers, sorry, bankers do nowt and get paid 100X'.
I don't know how to set salaries, but considering the size and complexity of the RNLI from both an operational and fundraising perspective, a CEO for less than £140k would appear to be a bargain if they are effective.

 

[ancientsailor]

This seems now a post in part about relative merits of occupations. I remember from a course how this was illustrated with a scenario.

You – for some reason – are an honoured guest in a repressive country. While being shown around, you are taken to where the firing squad is at work. Awaiting execution are (make up your own list):
- footballer
- dance choreographer
- nurse
- lifeboatman
- doctor
- elderly person who’s done much charitable work and discovered life-saving medicines
- child aged about five
- banker
- politician
- crossing patrol
- dustman ...

The head of the firing squad approaches and says, “In honour of your visit, we will release one of the prisoners from the batch, please chose whom you’d like us to release. Do come again tomorrow and we’ll do it again with the next batch”. Problem is, if you don’t chose, all go to the wall.

What criteria do you apply ...?

Oh well, I thought I’d throw it in before I turn off the computer and hide

 

[Alcyone]

I remember being very shocked, many years ago when I found out that Oxfam pay huge bonuses to those employed by them to raise funds. At that point, I simply didn't understand that it was not the salary that was important, if the person was worth it, enough said.

A quick scan for some RNLI accounts shows the many branches, from boat acquistions to station design, retail shops and so on. Turnover in the 10s of millions with assets many times that.

The last thing one would want with a 'business' like that is a bunch of recent graduates on 20K running it, surely?

 

[toad_oftoadhall]

A letter in today's Times reveals that there are 28 members of the RNLI's staff paid between £60k and £80k and 12 between £80k and £140k. Why?

It's a private organization. It's swimming in cash. They can pay themselves whatever they want. Nothing to do with anyone else.