ACEVO’s annual Pay and Equalities Survey is the most comprehensive breakdown of the sector’s CEO remuneration packages available. The report examines chief executive salaries, benefits and job satisfaction in detail. It also explores the level of equality and diversity in our sector’s leadership, and satisfaction levels in the make-up and performance of boards.
ACEVO, with its partners, has been publishing a pay and equalities survey for over 15 years. In that time, the format of the survey has evolved, and the world in which our sector’s leaders operate has changed enormously.
The 2026 ACEVO Pay and Equalities Survey, based on responses from 629 charity CEOs across the UK, found that the median annual basic salary has risen from £59,850 last year to £66,000 this year. However, this figure needs to be understood in context. The survey received a larger proportion of responses from medium-sized charities this year, as well as more respondents aged 45-64 and therefore in mid to advanced career stage and from London and the South East, where salaries are generally higher than in other areas of the UK. For the first time, the salary data has been weighted by organisational income to make comparisons with previous years more reliable. While the increase is above inflation over the last 12 months, CEO salaries have grown extremely slowly over the last decade, and the median remains significantly behind inflation over that period.