The number of government employees earning £200,000 and above has risen.

And the number paid more than £50,000 has rocketed too, latest government accounts outlined in the ’Dark Blue Book’ show.

Those paid more than £200,000 grew from 26 in 2017-18 to 37 in 2018-19.

The total number of central government staff paid more than £50,000 rose from 1,021 in 2017-18 to 1,112 by the end of March last year.

Figures for the group, which include Manx Utilities, the Post Office, the Steam Packet and government-owned companies such as Radio Manx Ltd, were 1,207 in that £50,000-plus bracket in 2018-19, up from 1,102 in 2017-2018. In 2015-16, the number of government employees earning more than £50,000 was 885.

That figure rose to 919 the following year.

Latest audited accounts show there is no longer anyone earning more than £350,000.

In 2017-18, there was one staff member working in central government earning between £350,000 and £374,999.

In 2018-19, the highest paid member of government staff was earning between £325,000 and £349,999.

The figures cover gross pay including compensation payments made in connection with employment but excluding employers’ pension contributions, settlement payments or compromise agreements.

And the figures are based on the total remuneration for an individual employee regardless of how many posts they may have held - for example, if they were employed by two different departments for two different tasks.

The Dark Blue Book also reveals a large increase in the number of staff earning £50,000 to £74,999.

In 2017-18, there were 784 in this pay bracket, of which 716 worked in central government. But by the end of March last year, the figure was 847, of which 764 were in central government. The highest paid government workers have generally been consultants at the hospital.

Compensation payable to Ministers, chiefs officers, board members, directors and members of senior management teams totalled £4.9m in 2018-19, up from £4.08m the previous year.

As we reported in last week’s Examiner, the latest accounts show that the government’s pension scheme liability rocketed by a whopping £448m last year.

The liability increased to £4,171m by the end of March last year, principally due to an actuarial loss of £324m. This loss was the result of changes in financial assumptions in relation to inflation and corporate bond yields.

In 2017-18, the liability actually fell by £100m to £3,723m, when there had been an actuarial gain of £223m.

Many of the highest earners on the government payroll are medical professionals.

But there are five members of staff at the Financial Services Authority earning between £100,000 and £199,999 and one earning between £200,000 and £300,000, according to the regulator's annual report for 2019.