Gordon Taylor is under pressure to offer a justification for his £2.2m salary as chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, which last year included a £777,000 bonus.

The publication of the PFA accounts shows in 2016-17 Taylor received a basic wage of £1.2m, his bonus and £271,300 in employers’ National Insurance contributions. This is equivalent to around £6,027 a day or £42,308 a week, giving Taylor parity with many of the highest paid Premier League players he represents.

Revelations about the 73-year-old’s remuneration package have angered many within the game. It can be contrasted with the £100,000 the PFA has contributed towards concussion and head injury research in more than five years, a matter which has dominated the lives of former footballers with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Taylor’s salary has gone up £1.3m from the previous year and he also gets a £41,250 car allowance, private medical cover worth almost £9,000 and utilities’ benefits worth £2,800. The entire budget of the PFA, made up of grants and member contributions, is just under £17m.

The former Chelsea player Graeme Le Saux called the package “absolutely scandalous” while the former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan told the Guardian it was unjustifiable. “It’s nothing personal towards Gordon Taylor – the Dalai Lama could be the chief executive of a union and on that money and I would still say it was wrong on so many levels,” he said.

“Only in football, which is so detached from reality, could you pay yourself a salary of that nature. You can’t ignore that the PFA do some good stuff, very good people within the confines. But it can also be very self-serving and there is nothing more self-serving than 13-14% of the annual budget going on one person’s salary. It’s out of kilter with any other industry for a union leader to have that sort of salary. While he is a figurehead and comes in front of camera to be outspoken, to justify that salary is to defend the indefensible.”

Dawn Astle, the daughter of the former West Brom striker Jeff Astle, who died aged 59 after living with dementia for many years, campaigns for more research into the effects of heading footballs. “It’s like a kick in the teeth,” she said. “He is accountable to no one and should go and give the job to someone more in touch.”

Taylor has been in charge of the PFA since 1981 and lives in Lancashire.