A top reward down to the cent

Tekst Arno Kersten - Redactie Onderwijsblad - 11 april 2024 - 11 Minuten om te lezen

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The Angela School is a one-person school with approximately 450 students in Boxtel, Brabant. The director and deputy both fall under the Top Income Standards Act (WNT), which determines the maximum amount a 'top official' may earn. For a small school like this, the legal upper limit in 2022 was 128.000 euros. That amount not only includes gross salary, holiday pay and end-of-year bonus, but also, for example, taxable expense allowances and the employer's contribution to the pension. The special thing is: the director-manager reached exactly that upper limit that year, as appears from the school's annual report. Even down to the euro.

With an annual turnover of almost half a billion, Wageningen University and Research Center (WUR) is a much larger and more complex organization. That is why the upper limit for remuneration at the top for this organization is also higher, namely 216.000 euros in 2022. That amount is the absolute ceiling in the semi-public sector, based on what a minister earns. With emphasis based, because the rounded amounts are a pragmatic consideration of the government: more practical for implementation and communication (see the box below). In Wageningen, the directors all adhere strictly to that legal maximum. The same applies to the Arnhem and Nijmegen University of Applied Sciences. Just like at TU Delft, Radboud University and Fontys University of Applied Sciences.

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It stands out in the annual reports: directors with remuneration up to one euro equal to the legal maximum. Fifteen education administrators earned exactly as much as a minister in 2022. Another 42 directors were at most one percent below. Sometimes it only makes a difference of one or two euros, such as at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. A phenomenon that has been on the rise. That is not at all strange, because there was a time when some directors earned considerably more than a minister. That time is over. In recent years there has been a transition period where rewards had to be reduced gradually to comply with the rules.

Source: DUO Financial accountability from XBRL

There are also directors who reach exactly the ceiling when they take office. Chairman of the Board Sjoukje Heimovaara took office at Wageningen University & Research in July 2022. In the six months to the end of that financial year, a maximum of 108.887,67 euros applied. She got it right down to the cent. Bijar Altalabani started at the Roc van Amsterdam-Flevoland in September 2022. That year he received exactly the maximum amount of 72.197 euros, the upper limit for four months of board work.

That's allowed, it all fits exactly within the rules. But how exactly does such an annual salary correspond to the standard in practice? With that intriguing question the Education Magazine a tour of supervisors, administrators and HRM directors of twelve educational institutions. Many responses were limited to a short statement. Some supervisors no longer responded to a call request. At the Roc van Amsterdam-Flevoland, the supervisory board did not want to answer additional questions based on 'good employership'. The supervisors of the Arnhem and Nijmegen Universities of Applied Sciences had no need to provide an explanation at all.

Other way around

“In principle it works quite simply,” explains WNT expert Henk Jan van den Bosch of the independent knowledge base WNTadvies. “In many cases, remuneration is agreed with a director. A total annual amount at or below the WNT maximum, and therefore not a monthly salary as with staff in the collective labor agreement. At the beginning of the year, it is calculated how large the pension portion of that remuneration will be. You then know the scope for gross salary, holiday pay, end-of-year bonus and other possible emoluments.” Van Den Bosch refers to an Excel calculation tool. This allows you to calculate in reverse: based on a total amount, the gross monthly salary and pension contributions are calculated. A check towards the end of the year indicates how much space remains, and then a final correction will follow in December or January at the latest.

At Wageningen UR, the maximum WNT remuneration has indeed been agreed with all directors, chairman Elbert Dijkgraaf of the supervisory board confirmed by email, a few weeks before he was to become an informant. 'During the year, the directors receive a salary payment of just less than one-twelfth of the annual amount every month up to and including November and a final settlement is drawn up in December and the remainder is paid out.'

In fact, he was entitled to a higher fee and we only paid out the limit within the WNT

There is also another scenario, as the tour shows. At the Veluwse Onderwijsgroep, a large umbrella organization of schools in primary and secondary education, then director Wim Hoetmer reached his upper limit of 2022 euros in 196.000. “The fee in 2022 will indeed be exactly at the standard,” emails chairman Jaco Rogier of the supervisory board. 'In fact, he received a higher fee and we only paid out the limit within the WNT.' According to Rogier, the explanation is a collective labor agreement increase in 2021 that will be paid retroactively in 2022.

Quadraam is a board of fourteen secondary schools in the Arnhem, De Liemers and Overbetuwe region. Both then-directors Erika Diender and Patrick Eckringa were exactly at their own ceiling in 2022, 147.000 euros (for nine months) and 196.000 euros respectively. 

Chairman Krisje Hurkens of the supervisory board does not want to say much about the remuneration agreements themselves, because they are 'not public'. She emails about the practical implementation: 'The space will be determined at the end of the year. The difference is calculated between what has been paid and what can still be paid, taking into account the remuneration agreements, the current collective labor agreement and the WNT standard. That amount is then included in salary payments in the usual way.'

The directors fell under the collective labor agreement for directors in basic education, HRM director Hans de Reus explains by telephone. The legal maximum came into view for various reasons. That is why the remuneration was 'capped', exactly to the upper limit.

The directors' collective labor agreement does not calculate with all-in amounts, but with gross salary amounts on an annual basis. A control calculation towards the end of the financial year will reveal an impending exceedance of the WNT maximum in a timely manner. Then there may be an adjustment before the closing of the financial year. Nobody likes to be reprimanded by the accountant. It also applies to directors who are classified in the regular collective labor agreement.

Executive scale

Such as at the Angela School, the one-person school in Boxtel. With his long track record - more than twenty years at the helm - director Jos Korsten is at the end of his management scale in the regular collective labor agreement. His remuneration threatened to exceed the WNT maximum of 2022 euros in 128.000, which applies to the smallest school boards. “Sometimes things happen that you have no influence on, such as a collective labor agreement increase,” he says. “I saw it coming myself and I called the administration office.”

Yet there are directors who exceed their statutory remuneration ceiling. According to data that DUO has published, this will involve more than sixty administrators in 2022. The vast majority of these concern primary and secondary education. The exceedances amount to 80 mille, but in most cases it concerns smaller amounts. The exceedances usually result from a subsequent payment of holiday pay or due to an increase in the collective labor agreement. Such an exceedance does not always have consequences. Under certain circumstances you may write off an excess for accounting purposes from a previous year, provided you were sufficiently below the standard at the time. An administrative trick, permitted by law, which is readily used.

I don't want any fuss about my salary at all, so I said: we'll reverse things

Such as at the Breda Foundation for Islamic Primary Education, where the director ended up just 43 euros above his maximum of 143.000 due to a supplementary payment from the previous year. At VMBO/MBO school community De Rooi Pannen, the then chairman's salary of 196.583 euros was just 583 euros above the maximum. The reason was the payment of holiday allowance and the excess could be 'attributed to previous calendar years', according to the annual report,

But sometimes a driver has to pay back. Thanks to the addition of a lease car, driver Werner Willemsen of PuntSpeciaal, an education group for (secondary) special education, ended up with about ten thousand euros more than his maximum of 168 thousand euros. “An electric car had been purchased from a sustainability point of view, which I would use. Then there was uncertainty about the application of the WNT. I don't want any fuss about my salary at all, so I said: we'll reverse things. The car is gone, I paid back the money and this year I meet the standard again. Not to the penny, but well below.”

Monthly portions

The Grafisch Lyceum in Utrecht is a vocational vocational school with approximately 2200 students. Both directors, Sandra Beentjes and Peter de Vries, were exactly at the WNT maximum of 2022 euros in 168.000. 'From the annual reports of the Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht you can conclude that Mrs. Beentjes' remuneration has been at the end of class D for a number of years. The annual adjustment of Mrs. Beentjes' remuneration is equal to the annual indexation of class D', chairman Jan van den Akker of the supervisory board emails. 'Based on his relevant work experience (director in the higher professional education sector) and extensive seniority in education, Mr de Vries received an appropriate classification when he started at GLU five years ago. He has now also gradually grown towards the maximum of class D.'

And the practical implementation? 'The vocational school uses the HR2day application, which includes a budget tool. This tool makes it possible to translate the budgeted annual remuneration of the directors into monthly portions.' Perhaps unnecessarily, Van den Akker adds: 'The fact that both current directors are currently at the end of the scale does not mean that this is automatic. To illustrate: one of the two directors, Peter de Vries, is retiring this spring. His successor, who has now been appointed, will start at a much lower level.'