One of Wales' largest local authorities has decided to slash the salary of its chief executive officer.
Carmarthenshire County Council's next top official will receive £30,000 less in their pay packet than the current chief of the 185,000-population council, who is retiring this year.
The £145,000 wage was recommended by the Independent Renumeration Panel of Wales and agreed by full council on Wednesday.
It comes after Carmarthenshire's current £175k-a-year chief executive Mark James, who has been in the post for 17 years, announced his intention to retire in June later this year .
But with budgets tightening, and council tax rates soaring, should other council's consider cutting the pay packets of their top members of staff?
Figures from last year show that there are more than 115 council officials earning more than £100k-a-year in Wales.
Cardiff has 14 officers on six-figure salaries, Swansea has 12, Powys has eight, Wrexham has eight, the Vale of Glamorgan has seven and Caerphilly has six.
England's authorities have even more gravity-defying salaries with 3,483 officials earning more than £100k, 537 earning over £150k and 23 taking home more than £250k.
Here's how Wales' unitary authorities compared as of last year.
(Source: The Taxpayers' Alliance Town Hall Rich List. Published April, 2018)
According to the most recent estimates available from the Office for National Statistics, Cardiff has the highest population of any local authority by some margin at 362,800.
Cardiff City Council's chief executive Paul Orders is the highest paid council boss in Wales taking home £171,000 a year, although this is less than his predecessors Jon House (£184k-a-year) and Byron Davies (£207k-a-year).
However not all councils match their salary to their population.
Swansea council pays its chief £129,617 despite it having the second largest population next to Cardiff at 245,500.
Pembrokeshire Council's 124,700 estimated population, thirteen places below Cardiff if you ranked them in order, is comparatively modest compared to its chief executive's salary which is £160,674. That's the third highest on the list.
Caerphilly County Borough Council has to to pay two wages for one person to do the job.
Chief executive of Caerphilly council Anthony O'Sullivan still remains on their payroll following a pay rise scandal in 2012 , despite not having had to turn up for work for nearly six years.
An interim chief executive is currently being paid £143,949 a year to do the job in his absence, effectively doubling the cost to the tax payer.
Blaenau Gwent council deleted the role of chief executive in 2016 in order to save money, replacing it with a position they called lead corporate director and head of paid service .
John O'Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "All local authorities should be looking to reduce their staffing costs wherever possible, and many taxpayers will wonder whether a £30,000 decrease goes far enough.
"Many hard pressed families haven't seen an increase to their income but are being forced to pay more and more for council tax each year.
"The money being dished out on extravagant salaries could be better spent on essential services like bin collection and social care."
