Around a quarter of the Netherlands’ housing corporation bosses are breaking their own pay guidelines and earn more than the prime minister, the sector regulator VTW says in a new report.

And 103 of the 800 directors earn ‘much more’ than the official ceiling of €180,000 – the equivalent of the prime minister’s basic salary – the report shows. The report does not give detailed figures.
The VTW says housing corporations should tighten up their own salary guidelines. The system should be ‘simplified, given a maximum and made compulsory’, the Financieele Dagblad quotes the organisation as saying.
The report shows some 40% of housing corporations also give senior executives performance-related bonuses, but that 50% don’t think this is acceptable for a public sector body.
The government is currently working on new legislation to set a formal ceiling on public sector pay, which will come into effect in 2011.