Only slightly more than one-quarter of the UK’s highest-paying charities name their top earner in their accounts, research conducted by Third Sector has revealed. 

The Charity Pay Study 2024 found that 26 of the top 100 charities as ranked by the sums given to their highest-paid individual confirmed who that person was. 

This is one fewer than in 2023 and nine down on the previous study in 2021, albeit with a differing data set due to updates to the way information can be searched for on the Charity Commission website. 

Charities are not required to name the person in their accounts but 10 years ago an inquiry into senior pay conducted by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations recommended that all charities with paid staff should consider publishing the salaries of their highest-paid employees and those with gross incomes of more than £500,000 a year should always adopt this policy.

Many of the 100 charities in Third Sector’s study are not household-name organisations and few carry out significant fundraising activity, but this was not a factor in the NCVO’s 2014 recommendations. 

Sarah Elliott, chief executive of the NCVO, said today that the body encouraged all charities, particularly those that rely on public support, “to lead by example and consider publishing this information in the future”. 

She said: “NCVO has championed greater transparency on senior pay for some time, as we believe it is vital to maintaining the high levels of trust between charities and the public. 

“This new data highlights that while one in four charities are now publishing the salaries of their highest-paid employees, there is still a long way to go to achieving full transparency. 

"The more organisations share information like senior pay, the more we can support the public to develop a greater understanding of how charities work and grow trust in the need for talented and skilled leaders.”

The final part of Third Sector’s Charity Pay Study 2024, which will reveal the highest-earning person in the UK charity sector, will be published later today.