More than 115 RTÉ staff take home over €100,000 in 2020

RTÉ staff members who earned in excess of €100,000 in basic salary last year numbered 117.

That is according to new figures published by the national broadcaster that show of the 117 staff, 22 earned between €150,000 and €250,000. The remaining 95 earned between €100,000 and €150,000.

The figures do not include RTÉ's top earners such as Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy and Ray D'Arcy as they are not RTÉ staff but independent contractors and are paid through companies they have established.

The 117 is a decline of five on the 122 in that earning bracket for 2019.

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Last year, a further 176 RTÉ staff members earned between €80,000 and €100,000.The latest data show that average pay last year totalled €60,753 – a marginal increase on the average RTÉ salary of €60,713 for 2019.

The figures also show that 554 staff earned between €60,000 and €80,000, with the largest cohort at 745 earning between €40,000 and €60,000.

A further 274 earned salaries between “€0 to €40,000”.

‘Pay myth debunked’

In April, RTÉ staff voted overwhelmingly against a management proposal to cut pay, ranging from 3.5 per cent to 5.35 per cent for any staff member earning more than €40,000.

Irish secretary at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) Séamus Dooley said on Friday the earning bands published by RTÉ “debunk the myth that average RTÉ salaries are inflated or that there is a culture of excessive pay across the organisation”.

An RTÉ spokesman said: “Changes in salary bands are a result of normal annual movements across the organisation, including retirements.”

Asked for a gender breakdown on those earning above €100,000, the spokesman said the organisation does not publish that.

RTÉ is seeking to reduce its operating costs by €60 million between 2020 and 2023, though numbers employed at the broadcaster increased last year from 1,831 to 1,866.

Its costs are set to increase this year with coverage of “special events” such as the Olympics, Euros and Paralympics.

The spokesman would not be drawn on what the costs may be from covering these events .

As part of the move to reduce costs RTÉ announced a voluntary redundancy scheme, aiming for 60 to avail of it. It was oversubscribed and is now closed.