Enough already. What is this obsession with how much my peers and I are paid? I am fed up with article after article about the “shocking” salaries CEOs of multi-academy trusts (MATs) receive. Come on, admit it, you’re among friends: this is not so much real outrage, but perhaps more a teensy-weensy dollop of good old-fashioned jealousy. Because the facts show a considerably less hysterical reality.

First let’s consider the ratio of the CEO to the lowest-paid. Apparently, Twitter reckons this should be somewhere in the region of 10:1. Universities come in at about 18:1, with local government around a more svelte 15:1. The FTSE average is a whopping 262:1. Meanwhile, back in MAT land, where are we? Well, looking across the spread of top-line salaries, bar one notable outlier, the ratio ranges from 7:1 to - would you believe it - 10:1.

Second, the CEO gene pool for larger MATs is smaller than you might think - in the last week alone, yours truly has been approached for three jobs. What’s more, the number of big roles in the education sector is only going to grow, as more schools become academies, and as existing MATs continue to expand and new ones spring up. To attract the right people, must accept that salary will play a part.

Third, with one notable exception, we do self-regulate on remuneration and pay rises. I could command a much higher salary, but I don’t, because I feel well remunerated for a very rewarding job.

Perhaps what irks me more than anything else is the accusation that not only are we handsomely rewarded in pay, but that we are less accountable. If anything, accountability is directly commensurate with the pay.

Consider the tiers of governance and regulation that your typical MAT CEO lives with day in, day out: local governing bodies, regional boards (for larger MATs), trust boards, regional schools commissioners (plural when you operate in more than one region), Sir David Carter (if you are a larger MAT), Ofsted, Education Funding Agency… the list goes on, amounting to a crushing weight of accountability.

It’s no walk in the park dealing with the whims and caprice of the various characters who stalk the regulatory plain. Last week, I had a handful of regional schools commissioner meetings to go through data, a similar number of trust board meetings, a scattering of school inspections and a MAT routine audit - where else would you get that level of scrutiny? In a local authority? I think not.

Yes, I am paid more than the prime minister but that’s nothing compared with the most high-rolling of CEOs in education: step forward Sir Craig Tunstall, paid a cool £370,000 to oversee nine maintained primary schools in South London. Perhaps if local authority schools were subject to a comparable regulatory environment, such excesses would be prevented. But that information isn’t readily available, unlike the annual tarring and feathering of academy CEOs.

Being a MAT CEO is well paid. But it’s not outrageous. We don’t swan around breathing the rarefied air of Sanctuary Buildings and sipping Earl Grey tea from Sir David Carter’s best china. We race from school to school, from regulator to regulator, doing our jobs to the very best of our ability. Punishing hours can leave your family and friends neglected. When we do finally get to bed, we wake in the middle of the night worrying about whether we could be doing more.

It is a huge responsibility, but without doubt one of the best jobs in the world. But I do not, and will not, apologise for how much I am paid.

The author is a CEO of a multi-academy trust somewhere in England