More than 330 Leicester City Council employees were paid more than £50,000 last year, according to latest figures.
The authority's statement of accounts for the year 2013/14 show 337 members of staff were in pay brackets from £50,000 to £135,000 – 18 more than there were the year before.
Despite the increase in the number of higher-paid employees, the council says it has actually trimmed back its senior management costs.
It says the figures do not give a true reflection of the situation at Town Hall, where the authority has been dealing with large cuts to its grants from Whitehall. According to the accounts, it is estimated that Government funding for the council has fallen by about £50 million a year between 2010/11 and 2013/14.
Last year's budget strategy included plans to reduce annual expenditure by £11 million over two years.
City mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: "Of those 337, only 125 are council officers. Two-thirds of them are teaching staff who have their pay set by school governing bodies.
"Since I was elected, the number of managers in the very top tiers has fallen from 28 to 21. The senior management pay bill has been cut by 30 per cent from £2,646,000 to £1,869,000 in the last three years.
"By anyone's standards, that is a dramatic pruning."
The mayor said he was not sure there was much scope for further senior management reductions because staff were needed to implement further cuts in the coming years.
The council's accounts show that in 2012/13, there were five employees paid between £100,000 and £135,000. In 2013/14, there were eight, not including chief operating officer Andy Keeling, who was paid £137,560.
Mr Keeling's salary was reduced from £140,234 the year before, but his total remuneration package for 2013/14 was £158,931 – a rise of £5,113. The council's contributions to his pension rose from £12,621 to £21,353.
A council spokesman said of the 337 staff being paid more than £50,000, 14 fell into the bracket because of redundancy packages.
A further five were transferred from the NHS to take on the council's new public health responsibilities and 39 received the national one per cent pay award, elevating them into a higher pay band.
Last year, the council paid £3,826,860 in redundancy and termination packages to 326 employees. Of the departing staff, 271 were paid less than £20,000.
A payment of £181,588 was shared by two departing members of staff in the £80,000 to £100,000 pay bracket.
Tory opposition councillor Ross Grant said: "It's fine for the mayor to talk about 30 per cent cuts to top officer costs, but those top officers who have gone have in some cases been replaced by interim staff and that can be expensive.
"The savings get wiped out elsewhere and the services are disrupted."
