Senedd members should get a 6% pay rise, a board tasked with reviewing their pay has recommended. The pay rise would come into force from April this year if it is approved.
It would mean a Senedd member would be paid £76,380 a year from April. By comparison in 2024 the annual salary for an MP was £91,346.
The First Minister receives an additional £90,701 taking Eluned Morgan’s total salary to £167,081 from April, if the recommendation is approved. Ministers in her cabinet would get their base wage plus additional money making a total salary of £119,343 a year while deputy ministers would get £101,443 as total salary.
The recommendation, made by the independent remuneration board as part of its annual review, comes after years of pay rises for Senedd members being capped at 3%. Instead the wage would be linked it to the average pay increases in Wales at 6%.
The board say pay was either frozen or increased at less than the Wales average and it also brings the Senedd in line with pay increases at other UK legislatures in recent years. It also wants to increase payments available to those who who stand down or who stand and are not re-elected at the next election similar to what happens in Westminster to allow them time to close down their offices.
Board chair Dr Elizabeth Haywood said the review considered the “changing circumstances and inflationary pressures” facing MSs. “The board’s review focused on its core objectives and principles to ensure members are remunerated fairly and provided with sufficient resources to support them in their duties whilst ensuring that decisions are appropriate within the wider financial circumstances of Wales and represent value for money.
“The latest average earnings figure for 2023-24 (ASHE Wales), published in November, has confirmed a three-year period of unexpected and consistent growth in average salaries with increases to ASHE of 7.3%, 5.7%, and 6% during 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 respectively. Retaining the 3% cap on members’ pay, which has been in place since 2021, would contradict this principle and the board therefore proposes an increase of 6% in line with the latest ASHE figures for Wales.
“The board has also reviewed the support provided for members leaving the Senedd drawing on international evidence and the approaches of other UK legislatures. We look forward to hearing people’s views on these proposals to help shape a fair final offer.” For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
Huge changes are afoot in the Senedd with the number of MSs being upped in 2026 to 96. The election, in May, will see 96 rather than 60 politicians elected and in newly-drawn up constituencies. The way they are voted in will also change and you can read more about that here. The cost of paying for and changing the Senedd building for the expansion was initially expected to be up to £120m. However late last year it emerged that the physical changes to the chamber were more expensive than initially planned because MSs had insisted on having desks meaning more work was needed to adapt the chamber. In October the Senedd Commission asked for a 16% uplift to its budget for 2025-26 saying the extra money was needed to help the Welsh Parliament manage “the biggest change since it was established in 1999”. The recommendation for the pay rise now goes to a public consultation which closes in February.