Four senior council officials received six-figure salaries last year.
The now-retired chief executive Gavin Stevenson received more than £150,000 with economy and resources director Lorna Meahan, communities director and current interim chief exec Derek Crichton and education boss Gillian Brydson also crossing the six-figure threshold.
The figures were included on the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s “town hall rich list”, which is formed using information gleaned from every local authority’s annual accounts.
Their data shows that Mr Stevenson received a salary of £151,778 in the 2020/21 financial year. His total remuneration was £184,187 once pension contributions were included.
Mr Stevenson temporarily stood down from his role in April last year due to ill health and retired in December. The identity of his permanent replacement, Dawn Roberts, was revealed this week.
His role was initially taken on last year by former East Ayrshire Council chief Fiona Lees but when Mr Stevenson retired, Mr Crichton stepped up to an interim role.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance figures show his salary as communities director in 2020/21 was £111,195, the same as economy and resources director Ms Meahan.
Ms Brydson received £108,660 as education boss.
Three other employees – social work boss Lillian Cringles, renewal, restart and recovery chief Richard Grieveson and head of finance and procurement Paul Garrett – received salaries less than six-figure salaries but pension contributions took their remuneration past the £100,000 mark.
A council spokeswoman pointed out these were only seven of around 6,000 staff and as a pension contribution “isn’t a payment to staff” it was only the chief executive and three directors who received six-figure sums.
They added: “In order to attract and retain the very best talent to these senior positions, Dumfries and Galloway Council must agree a salary package that is broadly consistent with other councils in Scotland. Furthermore, with the exception of the chief executive role (the salary is agreed nationally by COSLA), all other council roles are established via a job description and person specification and then put through a rigorous, transparent and COSLA agreed job evaluation scheme.
“The scheme compares jobs within the council and establishes the level of pay based on complexity, level of responsibility, level of resources and compares to those other roles below and above to establish a fair and reasonable rate of pay.
“Salaries are also subject to pay reviews, again set nationally by COSLA through collective bargaining machinery with trade unions, UNISON, GMB and UNITE, and increases are set each year and agreed with trade unions prior to implementation of new rates of pay. COSLA seeks to ensure that salary increases are affordable and sustainable for councils but that takes into account living standards across the UK and Scotland.”
The figures from the TaxPayers’ Alliance show nearly 3,000 council employees across the UK received six-figure salaries in 2020/21, 278 of whom work in Scotland.
“With households having suffered through the pandemic and now struggling under colossal tax bills, the country needs councils to prioritise key services without resorting to punishing tax hikes.”
