Payroll covers all the people employed by the club, from the players, through the board members, through to the match day tea-lady.

There are two areas to watch. The obvious one is that that the wages just don't get too high. The graph shows that the wages fell steadily from 2001 to 2004 before creeping up in 2005 and then remaining steady. The comparison with other SPL sides can be seen here.

The second area to keep an eye on is the ratio of the wages to the income. Deloittes who do some in-depth analysis of football finances reckon the target for this ratio should be 50%. This allows the club to cope with the costs of running the business, buying the occasional player, running a youth development system, putting on games, maintaining the ground etc. In the Aberdeen accounts for 2006 a comment is made that the target 'industry recommended' target is 60%. Most SPL clubs seem to be aiming for this 60%

Which ever target is used Motherwell have been slightly over it. In 2006 and 2007 the ratio was in the mid 60-70% range. This is the maximum the club should ever be looking to have.  There are two ways to improve the ratio, by either cutting wages or by increasing income. The 2008 figures show a worrying leap in wages, up over £1m on 2007. This may be nearly justifiable due to having bigger bonus payments due improved team performance. The increase in turnover from the team performance was under £1m which makes an increase in wages of over £1m seem questionable at best.

Both Hibs and Aberdeen make a big play on the fact that they need to develop young players, and that this is in their view is the only way to sustain the club in the long run.