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MSP pay to rise by more than £2,000 to nearly £75,000


By PA News



Ministers will refuse the pay uplift for the 16th year in a row (Jane Barlow/PA)

MSPs are set to be given a pay rise of more than £2,000 that will see their wages climb to £74,506 a year.

The 3.2% increase was announced by the Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer in a letter to the Finance Committee.

The rise in salary will be effective from April 1 and will amount to an extra £2,310 a year.

It is lower than last year’s 6.7% rise but higher than the 1.5% rise in 2023/24.

In 2022/23, MSPs’ salaries were given a 3.4% increase. They did not rise in 2021/22.

Holyrood’s Presiding Officer said this year’s 3.2% uplift is in line with the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) index.

It represents a move away from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE Mean), which Alison Johnstone said had “become misaligned with other wage inflation indices in recent years”.

She said this year’s ASHE Mean is 6.7%, “further evidencing the misalignment”.

The Scottish Government said ministers will continue not to accept the rise.

Ministerial pay will remain at 2008 levels – about 30% lower than if ministers accepted every pay rise.

A junior minister currently receives £81,449 while a cabinet secretary gets £96,999 and the First Minister receives £135,605 a year.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “Ministerial pay has been voluntarily frozen for 15 years by Scottish ministers and there are no plans to change this.”

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