Consumers charity Which? spent just under 7 per cent of its total income on senior staff salaries, with its chief executive earning up to £340,000, according to its recently published annual accounts.

The consumer advice group and publisher, which is registered with the Charity Commission as the Consumers' Association, paid 61 people in its charity and commercial arms more than £60,000 in the year to June 2014.

Which? said that 12 full-time equivalent employees earning more than £60,000 worked in the charitable part of the organisation.  

The chief executive, Peter Vicary-Smith, has his role split so that 70 per cent of it is attributed to the commercial side and 30 per cent to the charity side. Which? said pay for each side is comparable with similar organisations.

“To account for the nature of the role, the reward for the group chief executive comprises two elements: charitable and commercial," the charity said in its annual report.

"The charity remuneration is benchmarked against similar large charities and represents 30 per cent of his role. The commercial remuneration is benchmarked against the median quartile of comparable commercial organisations and represents the remaining 70 per cent of his role.”

The accounts say that three individuals working for the charity side earned £100,000 or more and the highest-paid individual working for the charity side earned £198,000.

A Which? spokesman said: “Which is a not-for-profit social enterprise and receives no government funding or public donations. The profits from our successful commercial businesses are ploughed back into our campaigns and free advice for all consumers enabling us to invest £10.9m in our charitable arm last year.
 
"Three quarters of our highest salaries are from our successful commercial businesses not our charitable arm. We pay fairly and competitively with all Which? staff paid above the living wage.”

In 2012/13 Which? introduced a long-term incentive plan for individuals on the commercial side to reward senior staff for growth of more than 22 per cent.

All of the charity’s income comes from commercial activities. Total income for the year to June 2014 was £94.7m, an increase of £8.1m on the year before. Expenditure also rose from £82.6m to £94.2m.

The core publishing business had 1,480,000 subscribers at the end of June 2014, an increase of 649,000 over ten years. Its publishing revenue was £89.5m, with a profit of £22.8m.