I firmly believe there are far too many people in the Public Sector already on salaries of £100k or above. Pay levels in public service do not reflect ‘the worth’ of roles, or the quality of people occupying them, the fact that there are five people working for Sandwell MBC who earn more than £150k, more than the salary of our Prime Minister, could not illustrate this point more vividly.
A central pledge in my mayoral campaign is to keep a tight rein on the WMCA, particularly in terms of the number of people it employs, and the consequent cost to the taxpayer, this includes the mayoral role itself. I would consider it a tremendous honour and a privilege to serve the West Midlands public as its mayor, and for this reason have stated that I would not take more than £30,000 from the public purse in salary, or, if ‘forced to take £79k’, would distribute anything above this to charity.
I would suggest the choice of £79k proves my point that public sector salaries bear no resemblance to the worth or responsibility of role concerned. If they did then £79k indicates that the West Midlands Metro Mayor is ‘worth’ quite bit less than its Police and Crime Commissioner (currently ‘valued’ at £100k), and considerably less than the twenty three people employed in Sandwell MBC who command salaries in excess of £100k
Pete Durnell 