Lower salary limit pushes more school administrators above WNT norm
More than two percent of education administrators - forty in number - earned more than the top salary standard of their sector in 2015. That is an increase compared to 2014, when there were thirty. But there is a catch: in MBO and HBO the upper limit dropped by more than twenty thousand euros last year.
The different education sectors have their own, lower maximum standards for what a driver can earn. In higher professional education and vocational education, the upper limit was lowered last year from nearly 178 euros to 1 euros. This has to do with a further tightening of the Top Income Standards Act as of 2015 January 130. The maximum has been reduced from 100 percent of a minister's salary to XNUMX percent.
Transitional regime
This explains the spectacular increase in the number of directors in vocational education above the remuneration maximum last year.
In 2015, 23 percent of HBO drivers exceeded the norm, in 2014 this was five percent. And in MBO, twelve percent earned more than the maximum last year, while that was only three percent in 2014.
Today Minister Plasterk of the Interior sent the 2015 annual review of the Top Income Standards Act to the Lower House.
The fact that they are above the norm has no consequences for most drivers. They fall under the transitional regime that was introduced in 2013 with the Standards for Top Incomes Act. Their contracts predate the introduction of the law. Institutions are given a total of seven years to have current contracts meet the standard.
Termination benefits
The annual review also reports that last year 34 education administrators received a severance payment, four of which exceeded the norm (75 thousand euros). The number of severance payments for senior officials in education is on a declining trend. In 2013 there were 48, in 2014 it was 38.
Primary education, the sector with by far the most school board members, also had the most administrative departure arrangements last year: 23, one of which exceeded the norm. A transitional arrangement also applies to severance schemes if they were laid down before the law took effect.
Last year in MBO there were four directors with a severance scheme, two of which were above the norm. Among them also the three tons of pension supplement of the former chairman Erik Hietbrink of the Rotterdam Shipping and Transport College. There is one case in higher professional education, namely the golden handshake for former Hogeschool Utrecht president Geri Bonhof, where the Onderwijsblad previously reported about it. At 182.900 euros, this was well above the norm. Both issues fall under the transitional regime according to the institution's accountant.
Violations
It is not yet known whether there are school administrators who violated the top salary law in 2015 (and who do not fall under the transitional arrangement). The Education Inspectorate reported earlier this month that there have been some reports of possible violations. There are also a number of issues from previous years. One of these is the case of interim allowances at Artez University of Applied Sciences.
