In short: Large charities pay CEOs to run complex organisations — staff, safeguarding, regulated services and multi-million fundraising — in a competitive labour market. Pay should still look proportionate to scale and be explained by trustees. Check £60,000+ pay bands in the accounts; high CEO pay alone does not mean little reaches the cause.
Headlines about charity CEO pay omit the job description. Leading a national charity can mean thousands of employees, shops or clinical services, strict safeguarding duties and large fundraising programmes. Trustees set pay to hire people who can carry that responsibility.
Your checks:
Is the charity large enough that six-figure pay is plausible?