MSPs’ salaries to rise to nearly £75,000 following pay award

Members of the Scottish Parliament will see their salaries rise to nearly £75,000 following a 3.2 per cent pay award.

Holyrood’s finance committee was informed that the rise – which is line with the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) index – will take effect from 1 April.

Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone said: “Members’ pay is increasing in line with the Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) index of 3.2 per cent.

“In the 2023-24 budget, the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) chose AWE to uplift MSP pay in a move away from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE Mean) which had become misaligned with other wage inflation indices in recent years.

“The application of AWE at 3.2 per cent equates to a salary of £74,506.”

MSPs voted in 2015 to sever the link between their pay and the salaries received by MPs at Westminster. MSPs had previously been paid 87.5 per cent of an MP’s wage and were in line to receive a nine per cent pay rise after the 2016 general election, something leaders at Holyrood agreed was “politically unthinkable”.

Until last year, MSPs’ salaries were based on the Office for National Statistics annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE). But the SPCB said this measure had become “misaligned” with other wage inflation indices, pointing to the fact that MSPs received an extra 1.5 per cent in 2023/24 when inflation was running at 10 per cent.

Ministers are entitled to extra money on top of the base rate but since April 2009 have declined to accept their full entitlement. Ministers are entitled to £99,516 but under the voluntary pay freeze receive the 2008/9 level of £81,449. A cabinet secretary has an entitlement of £118,511 but receives £96,999.