Bishop Hill The gravy train at the Royal Society
Jun 2, 2012 Royal Society Paul Homewood takes a look at the annual report of the Royal Society and finds that wage inflation among its top earners has been quite startling.
Assuming salaries fall in the middle of each band, the total salary cost for 10 [senior] employees currently listed would be £920,000, an average of £92,000. This, of course, does not include social security or pension costs, which would typically add a further 25%. I have added the comparative numbers from 2005, and the difference is, quite frankly, astonishing. With inflation, it would be expected that a couple of staff might have crept over from the £50,000 band – though it should be added that since the 2008 recession most private sector employees have not any wage rises at all. But an increase in the numbers from 3 to 10 suggests that the gravy train has well and truly arrived at Carlton House Terrace.
Equally astonishing is the fact that 4 employees now earn over £90,000 pa, compared to just one in 2005.
Reader Comments (29)
I don't know why the shock - they are doing just what they are supposed to: surely noone could fault the way Paul Nurse has kept the standards of the RS at the expected level!
Telling lies has always paid better than telling the truth.
Ah, the ever increasing cost of insulation and whitewash!
The establishment has always been prepared to pay well for those that can play a blinder!
All they need to do now is make pension rights conditional on not speaking out against the interests of the RS and they'll have a full EU-style system of remuneration in place. i.e. worthless retread hypocrites coining it in at your expense while berating you for not conforming to their pox-ridden world view.
What do you expect?
Climate Change is a gravytrain.
A good summary of the decline and fall of the Royal Society from science to political advocacy, referencing out host's recent report
http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2012/03/the-royal-society-from-science-to-advocacy
and who agrees the salaries of the admin staff?
Will the gravy train ever come of the rails?
Not while the railway engineer is in charge, I suspect!
Edwina Curry famously said "most of the egg production in this country, sadly, is now affected with salmonella".
Now, it could fairly be said, most of our organs of state, sadly, are now infected by a green pathogenic bacillus.
Edwina Curry famously said "John Major is a gentleman"
When asked for her definition of "a gentleman"
Edwina replied "a gentleman always sits with his back to the taps"
And so they become progressively more complacent. On the other hand, in their position, who wouldn't? The money isn't just always available, it's always paid by someone else.
Hence the inevitable sense of entitlement.
It is exactly this entrenched self-interest that makes the prospect of any intelligent response to any environmental problem, however defined, by any government department – name your own country – an impossibility.
The only certainty is yet more money demanded and, as inevitably, spent.
Only the incurably optimistic could expect anything different.
I wonder how many are "on contract"?
The establishment is not naturally affiliated to the PAYE system.
If one were to plot average salaries for the entire history of the Royal Society, would it resemble a hockey stick? Are we witnessing unprecedented rates of salary growth that cannot be explained by natural causes? What positive feedbacks are driving the process and are current salaries in line with previous model predictions of salary growth? What we need is a good proxy and a taxpayer funded research grant.
These charlatans aren't worth a cent unless you're paying for propaganda by the kilogram.
This is just one small corner of the edifice built by those who have decided that their personal feelings and agendas are more important than the truth, and if there is a collision between the two, then it is truth that must be discarded.
From the Ecclesiastical Uncle, an old retired bureaucrat in a field only remotely related to climate with minimal qualifications and only half a mind.
Regrettably, I fear this report highlights The Royal Society’s part of a far wider phenomenon.
The difference between top and average or bottom salaries has been rising across the board. In central and local government, NGOs and the like, bureaucrats typically have more appropriate knowledge and abilities than the politicians, often part time, and do-gooders who sit on supervisory boards and many have (miss-) used their power to frustrate organizations’ purposes to feather their own nests. Usually they have offered boards the sop that the increases they claim are necessary to keep up with the private sector, where, however, performance is generally more readily monitored and dismissals are relatively easy. Who ever heard of official recognition that a civil servant was underperforming or of one being sacked?
Clearly the mandarinate within the Royal Society has run rings around their supervisory Board or whatever in the same way. (Not surprising, really, given that they are almost always bound to be boffins.) And as all the money the Royal Society supervisory board spends comes more or less without obligation from the government, why go to the bother of putting up a fight and risk offending the bureaucrats who actually do stuff?
Not for nothing has our present Prime Minister declared that he will monitor senior civil servants’ performance and dismiss those who are not up to their jobs. Bully to him for trying but will he be successful?
The problem has its roots in the fall of religious belief and the failure of society to replace fear of Hell’s fire with a concern for the well-being of others and is therefore beyond correction except in the very long term.
It could be worse - they could be climatologists.
I'd guess one climatologist could compete with several hundred Royal Society Apparatchiks in overall detriment to society.
(In addition to their approximately equal immediate trough-ing characteristics, one needs to factor in their overall impact on taxation and energy prices).
@greensand
If they are not on PAYE then they may be subject to IR35 legislation. Think Ed Lester, Chief Executive of the Student Loans Company
If they are avoiding tax by working freelance, then the tax man will be very interested or should be.
It seems to be endemic in the "charity" sector. A director of a certain "charity" was heard bragging about the salary of his prospective son in law, who had been advised by said director to drop out of university, in order to take up a £100k p.a. post driving a van to collect rags from it's shops!
Mongo,
They may be subject to IR35 but unlike most contractors these guys are likely exempt simply because they will be doing multiple directorships on multiple boards doing multiples of f@£k all!
Mailman
Oh dear! The pseudo science Bullingdon Club previously called the Royal Society is now the fully paid up member of the political class. He who pays the piper calls the tune. So much for prestige,integrity and honour. Where's Hercules when you need him? The list of stables to clean gets bigger.
You can get the accounts from here
The accounts give details of the number of people earning over £60k. It shows that:
3 earn between £60 and £70k
1 earn between £70 and £80k
2 earn between £80 and £90k
1 earn between £90 and £100k
1 earn between £100 and £110k
1 earn between £110 and £120k
1 earn between £160 and £170k
The green gravy train just keeps rolling along. To be fair though ex socialist worker party members would say " Because we're worth it"
When Warren Hastings who, along with Robert Clive laid the foundations of the British Raj in India, was accused of corruption by MPs he famously replied that he was surprised by his own restraint! That attitude seems all to common today among fat cats in both the private and the public sectors and our MPs who continue to rake in large sums in expenses despite the '"reforms."
All the same, we should be surprised at the restraint of the salaried members of the Royal Society. Just imagine how much they would earn if they were paid by results. They are trying to save the Earth from global warming. If the warming eases off or even goes into reverse in the next couple of decades then they could obviously claim to have been successful and would deserve far more wealth than Warren Hastings ever managed to garner in India!
I find these salaries actually quite in line ?
The gravy comes from giving lectures and the status that comes of being RS board member etc.
On itself not a bad thing either as long as this is limited in times assignments and does not become a club where the buddies and family members are invited in etc.
As long as the "essenshul sevisse" they provide does not cancer away
then we get another BBC.
Fortunately for them the Royal Society gets £45 million annually from the government.Clearly the politicians pushing the warming "hobgoblin" to scare us into obedience are getting the best politicians money can buy.
Jun 3, 2012 at 6:48 AM | Ecclesiastical Uncle
Who ever heard of official recognition that a civil servant was underperforming or of one being sacked?
As a retired bureaucrat you will know that underperformers will get a glowing report, promotion and a job in someone else's department.
The AGW appears to be only the second truly global network after the internet. Whatever remote area of the planet you live in, just support the AGW project and instantly the gravy train will arrive on your doorstep.
@mailman (hopefully a type in my name :) )
agreed, but greensand was wondering how many employees were on contract.
Also, even if they do work for different companies, they could still be subject to IR35 legislation, depends on the type of work, including control, substitution clauses in the contract etc
Be interesting to find out ;)