Commenting on Systems Matter III, a report for the Campaign for State Education about high pay in academy trusts and local authority sectors, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"This comprehensive piece of research gives us the clearest picture yet of how excessive pay for MAT CEOs is driving waste and inefficiency in the schools system, diverting public money from the classroom into a layer of highly paid bureaucrats.
"The MAT system allows its CEOs and leaders to set their own pay, without appropriate public scrutiny and regulation, while the hard work and collective endeavour of the vast majority of educators is not fairly recognised.
"The basic starting point should be to ensure that pay decisions in education are being made on a fair, transparent and objective basis. Executive pay must be fair relative to the pay of others working in education. There must be transparent pay outcomes and appropriate challenge on pay decisions for academy executives.
"The action taken by the government on MAT CEO pay is a start, but it is not enough. It will not be retrospective, so excessive CEO pay is baked into the system. Unlike other areas of pay in schools, there is no national pay framework for MAT CEO pay and this must be put right. The waste and inequality in the academies system must be tackled through a fair, transparent and enforceable shared pay framework."