Bank of England staff fed up with ‘rewards’ – despite £25m bonus payouts and inflation botch-job
Staff at the Bank of England have reportedly taken issue with their salaries, according to an internal survey, as Parliament warns that much bigger pay packages in the private sector could draw away top talent.
Financial News reported that just 36 per cent of Threadneedle Street workers said they were “fairly compensated” for their work in the Bank’s latest staff satisfaction survey.
A previous survey in October 2022 found that half of the central bank’s staff were not happy with their pay.
Questions about belonging, diversity, and inclusive leadership rendered scores of around two thirds’ satisfaction this year, in big improvements from 2022.
The Bank’s most recent annual accounts showed that of almost 5,000 staff, 537 earned six figures – a 14 per cent rise from the previous year.
Most staff secured a 3.5 per cent pay rise at the start of last year as part of a package that averted a possible strike.
A report from the House of Lords published yesterday warned of a “massive pay gap” between regulators and City firms that could risk drawing top talent away to the private sector.
The Bank rewarded staff with a total of £25m in bonuses in 2022, up from £23m in the year before, according to a freedom of information request by Opendemocracy.
A spokesperson for the Bank of England said: “The Bank sets a fair salary for its staff as part of a wider package of benefits. This will take into account a range of factors including experience, knowledge, specialism required for each role and external market benchmarks.
“We run staff surveys on a regular basis and will listen and act on the feedback that these provide.”
The Bank of England at large has been heavily criticised for its management of inflation, with the body’s monetary policy committee moving too slowly at the start of the recent inflationary wave and members of the steering group now failing to find consistency in their external communication.