With relegated sides having the luxury of parachute payments, there are a number of big earners who end up remaining on the books, and we’ve looked into the salaries of the top earners in the Championship
Highest Championship wage bills
Leicester City – £1.1m-a-week
The Foxes comfortably top the table when it comes to salaries and are the only side in the Championship to pay a total above £1m-a-week.
As mentioned, Jamie Vardy and summer signing Harry Winks are earning huge weekly salaries at the King Power Stadium, but 14 players are actually picking up a pay packet greater than £40,000-a-week, showing the huge gap in financial power between Leicester and the majority of the division.
Southampton – £773,000-a-week
Southampton sold some star players last summer after being relegated, including James Ward-Prowse and Romeo Lavia, who joined West Ham and Chelsea. However, the Saints managed to keep hold of the likes of Joe Aribo, Stuart Armstrong, Adam Armstrong and Jan Bednarek.
They also brought in winger David Brooks from Bournemouth on loan in January, taking their total weekly wage bill to almost three-quarters of a million pounds.
Leeds United – £694,000-a-week
As expected, the most recently relegated teams from the Premier League top the charts in the second tier, with Leeds United taking third spot. The Whites lost a number of their players on loan over the summer due to relegation release clauses, however, they kept hold of the likes of Georginio Rutter, Patrick Bamford and Dan James.
There was a change of ownership, a new manager in Daniel Farke and a number of new signings brought in over the summer, with Leeds forking out almost £700,000-a-week on their playing squad at Elland Road.
