Pay rise for MSPs takes salary to more than £72,000

MSPs' pay rises will now based on increases to average weekly earnings

MSPs are set to receive a 6.7% pay rise, the parliament has confirmed.

The base rate for members will increase to £72,195, up from the current rate of 67,662, and will take effect on 1 April.

MSPs received an increase of 1.5% last year and 3.4% the year before.

The Scottish government said a voluntary pay freeze for ministers would continue for the 16th consecutive year.

The increase in parliamentary pay was confirmed by Conservative MSP Jackson Carlaw, representing the Scottish Parliament's corporate body, at the finance and public administration committee.

Ministers are entitled to extra money on top of the base rate but since April 2009 have declined to accept their full entitlement, so their take home pay remains at 2008/9 levels.

A Scottish government spokesperson said this was in recognition of "wider economic and fiscal pressures, as well as the restraints placed on public sector pay".

"The voluntary pay freeze will continue in the next financial year," the spokesperson added.

• Pay rise for MSPs 'wholly inappropriate'

• Pay rise gives MSPs more than £63,000

• MSP salaries to rise above £62,000

MSP salaries for 2024-25 will be based on increases to average weekly earnings (AWE), having previously increased in line with the Office for National Statistics annual survey of hours and earnings (ASHE).

A spokesperson for the Scottish Parliament, which is responsible for the paying MSPs' salaries, said: "In recent years, ASHE has been increasingly out of sync with other wage inflation indices to the point that MSPs received 1.5% last year when general inflation was running at 10%.

"Prior to that, MSPs received 3.4% in 2022-23 and 0% in 2021-22.

"This year, AWE will be applied to MSPs' pay."

Currently, a Scottish government minister is entitled to £99,516 but under the voluntary pay freeze receives the 2008/9 level of £81,449.

A cabinet secretary has an entitlement of £118,511 but receives £96,999.

The voluntary reduction is taken from net pay and returned to the Scottish government to be made available for public spending.