The payment, which includes a performance related bonus of £143k, comes during a year when the guardian implemented a strategic review that led to the redundancy of more than 100 staff and made public an "all staff" pay freeze for the financial year from 2009 to 2010 covered by today's financial statement.
According to , the increase was not related to financial performance but "personal objectives" as judged by an independent remuneration committee.
It is McCall's last full year at the publisher before she moves on to become the new chief executive at low-cost airline EasyJet later this year.
Tim Brooks the Guardian managing director who led the strategic review, has been awarded a performance related bonus of £64,000 and has seen his total payments jump from £256,000 to £330,000 during the year until March, a near 30% leap.
In comparison, Alan Rusbridger volunteered to forego 10% of his base salary during the period, taking a final payment of £411k for the year, including £395k basic salary, down from £445k in 2009. Andrew Miller, group finance director at GMG, waived his bonuses during the period.
At the end of last year, GMG blamed in part the impact of the economic downturn for its poor performance, and said the pay freeze would hit all staff and management within Guardian News and Media, GMG Regional Media, GMG Radio and GMG Property Services.
As spokesman for the Guardian said: "With the exception of GMG Radio, no bonuses were paid in respect of financial performance objectives, which generally account for 70% of the total potential variable compensation for executives. The remuneration committee, which consists of independent directors, decided that some payment would be made where stretching personal objectives had been achieved."
The spokesman said examples of "performance related" activity included the final refinancing of the Emap business-to-business division at the beginning of the year, which GMG co-owns with Apax, and the sale of several Guardian regional newspaper titles including the Manchester Evening News, to Trinity Mirror for £44.8m, which included just £7.4m in cash, the total achieved when Trinity Mirror released GMG from a £37.4m print contract.
Today's record loss for 2009/10 follows a pre-tax loss of £96.7m in the previous financial year.
GMG is wholly owned by the Scott Trust and its multimedia portfolio includes national newspapers, radio stations, magazines, websites and B2B media.
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