The issue of pay for the new person at the top of West Midlands politics remains a mystery.
And the candidates will not find out for certain until March 3 - just two weeks before the deadline for nominations.
UPDATE: The panel has reccomended a salary of £79,000.
The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has appointed an Independent Remuneration Panel - no councillors or politicians allowed - to come up with a figure. This will then be put to the WMCA board for approval.
Figures previously suggested have varied from £40,000 to £100,000 a year.
The chief executive of Wolverhampton City Council, Keith Ireland is reported to have told business leaders it could be as low as £40,000 - especially as to begin with the mayor's powers are limited.
For comparison the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson, who covers the same West Midlands area, is paid £100,000 per year.
A Member of Parliament is paid £74,962 and a Member of the European Parliament gets about £79,000. Labour candidate Sion Simon is currently a Euro-MP.
The leader of Birmingham City Council, the largest of the combined authority members and a possible deputy mayor, is paid £50,000 on top of his £16,000 councillor's salary.
So far Conservative Andy Street has suggested he would like to be the first pay by results politician with his pay split into a basic pay with top up bonuses based on performance against a set of agreed targets.
Both the Green and UKIP candidates, James Burn and Pete Durnell have said they will only accept a salary in the region of £30,000 per year and put the rest towards charity or business support fund.
