Salaries of top public sector bosses could be capped below the prime minister’s earnings – currently £197,689.
Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman told the Observer that big pay packets in public services had “got out of hand”.
Harman said a review by the chief secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne, could cap public sector salaries below the £197,689 of the prime minister.
The BBC revealed last week about 40 staff earned more than Gordon Brown.
Harman said: “There are many public servants who are paid more than the prime minister – with the pay rate and bonuses – and that is just evidence of how it has got out of hand.”
Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance
Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday
She added: “I don’t want to give any ceiling. I am not saying that [the prime minister’s salary] is the right ceiling because that might be too high. It might be that that is too high for everybody else.”
According to research last year by campaign group the Taxpayers’ Alliance, 387 people in the public sector earned more than £150,000.