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Some nurses are taking home an additional £40,000 a year - mainly in overtime - on top of their salary, skewing the figures for how many 'top earners' there are employed by the States.
The 2023 accounts - published earlier this week - show an increase in the number of States employees earning more than £105,000 per year.
However, some of those earners - including public sector workers as well as civil servants - may be on salaries of, for example, £75,000 per year with additional income taking them into the higher earner bracket, explained Deputy Heidi Soulsby.
Pictured: The 2023 States Accounts can be read in full HERE.
The above table is taken from the 2023 States Accounts - and it shows the cost to the island of Senior Employees across every industry that makes up the public sector.
The accounts show that the island had 5,058 full time equivalent (FTE) employees last year, compared to 4,916 in 2022. Altogether, they were paid a total of £312,132,000 - up from just over £287m the year before.
The average number of FTEs includes all employees (permanent, temporary, casual and agency) and takes into account additional hours they work through overtime etc. The accounts give an example of one member of Established Staff, working 36 hours per week, who would also count as 0.25 of an FTE if they did an additional 18 hours a week in overtime, over six months of the year.
Of those 5,058 FTEs, 230 were paid more than £105,000 each during 2023. That represents an increase of 71 on the year before.
The total cost of each person to the States will include their gross salary and any other forms of remuneration, including social security and pension contributions made by the States. The States accounts reflects these payments on top of salaries meaning that, for example, someone earning in the range of £85,000 (including any overtime and allowances) would cost the States more than £105k in total.
Pictured: As Vice President of Policy and Resources, Deputy Heidi Soulsby has taken a lead in fronting the 2023 States Accounts.
Deputy Soulsby told Express that the figures show how the island's public services are still being challenged by recruitment and housing problems.
"What we can see from the accounts is that the number of employees earning more than £105,000 per year has grown, but it's not the employee earnings, it's the cost to the state," she explained.
"That's important because it comes down to overtime in a lot of cases and it's really in that lower half that's just over into that £105,000 and it really reflects the underlying issue we're talking about in terms of staffing.
"We've got about 100 vacancies in the States, across not just civil servants, but public sector work. And this is all about the public sector and the key areas where we've got those vacancies are in health and social care and education, but health and social care is predominantly where the big issues are.
"We're trying to fill vacancies through agency workers, which, as we know, are more expensive and they're included in those figures. But also we've got people who've been doing a lot of overtime to fill those gaps. We're really grateful for them doing so and that's really pushed up people who don't earn, in terms of their own basic salary, anything like £105,000, but including their overtime, including back pay - because we had agreements on the pay deal last year and that had to be added to the figures - and on top of that, we have all the contributions and pension contributions that the staff don't get, so that makes up the total growth figure."
Pictured: Teachers, nurses, and others agreed or were awarded backdated pay deals last year.
Depiuty Soulsby said ongoing challenges in recruitment in the two key areas of health and social care and education is pushing up the States wage bill.
She said agency workers employed in both areas, along with huge amounts of overtime, are all adding up - particularly when it comes to health care.
She gave examples of some nurses who might have taken home tens of thousands of pounds additionally last year due to the amount of overtime needing to be covered at the hospital and across the community.
Deputy Soulsby reiterated what she has said previously - that the States needs to reform the island's health and social care model to improve financial management.
"We've got to look at a model health and social care and make sure that we've got a more sustainable model at the same time, we need to improve the housing offer," she said.
"We know this has been a long term issue. Some of us have been trying to push on that for a long time. At least now the States do own up to it being a crisis and we're doing something about it. Both a sustainable health position and housing are top priorities of the States, and certainly from our point of view, we're trying to lead and support those responsible committees to really make the changes that we need happen."
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