Scottish Ministers make the decisions on pay for most public sector staff in Scotland. Their decisions are published in the annual public sector pay policy, which is usually announced as part of the draft Budget.
We published the Integrated Public Sector Pay and Workforce Policy 2026 in January 2026 and the public sector pay policy for chief executives 2025 to 2026 in December 2025. See our collection of public sector pay documents for earlier versions.
Actions
Under the public sector pay policy, we:
- set the framework for pay for staff in public sector bodies through the pay policy for staff pay remits
- set the framework for pay of chief executives and the daily fees for public appointments through the pay policy for senior appointments
- consider and approve pay proposals via the Remuneration Group
- ensure pay transparency by disclosing the salaries of senior public sector staff
- ran a four day week working week pilot
Background
The annual public sector pay policy covers:
- the pay of the Scottish Government's core directorates and its associated departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies, public corporations and NHS Scotland senior managers (grades A to C)
- remuneration proposals for chief executives, some NHS executives and senior managers (grades D to I)
- the daily fees paid to chairs and members appointed by Scottish Ministers to public bodies
Where UK pay review bodies operate, Scottish Ministers will make decisions in the light of these pay review bodies' recommendations.
Some public sector pay groups are not governed by our public sector pay policy. We have published a list of organisations governed by other pay arrangements.
Equality impact assessments
We are committed to ensuring that public sector pay is fair and non-discriminatory. Since financial year 2013 to 2014, we have regularly published summary Equality Impact Assessments for public sector pay policy:
- public sector pay policy 2024 to 2025: equality impact and fairer duty assessment
- public sector pay strategy 2023 to 2024: equality impact assessment
- public sector pay policy 2022 to 2023: equality impact assessment
- public sector pay policy 2021 to 2022: equality impact assessment (revised)
- public sector pay policy 2020 to 2021: equality impact assessment
- public sector pay policy 2019 to 2020: equality impact assessment
- public sector pay policy 2018 to 2019: equality impact assessment
- previous public sector pay policies are in the archive
Chief Executive framework review
A review of the Chief Executive Framework was undertaken in 2024 and the Chief Executive Framework Review report published. The Public Sector Pay Policy Technical Guide was updated to implement the recommendations set out in the report.