FTSE 100 chief executive’s salary at record high | Business News

Managers of the UK’s most valuable companies are being paid more than ever before – with the average chief executive earning more than 100 times the salary of the average worker, according to analysis by think tank High Pay Centre.

The CEOs of the most valuable companies listed on the London Stock Exchange – the companies that make up the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 index – received an average salary increase of 2.2%, bringing the average salary to 4.19 million pounds.

It is the highest sum ever recorded.

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Average pay is calculated by adding up all paychecks and dividing it by the number of people getting paid, while the median is the midpoint of the highest and lowest pay.

When you look at the average salary for 2023, the figure is even higher at £4.98m – a 12.2% increase on 2022 and equates to a rise of over £500,000, according to figures from High Pay Centers.

The highest-paid boss in the FTSE 100 was AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot, who earned £16.85 million.

Erik Engstrom, head of analytics giant RELX, was next with £13.64m, followed by Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic with £13.61m.

In total, FTSE 100 companies spent £755 million on the remuneration of 222 executives, the High Pay Center said.

Nine companies paid more than £10 million to individual executives last year, up from just four in 2022.

Women paid less

Women make up the minority of CEOs and are paid less than their male counterparts.

In total, 11 women served as CEOs for at least part of the year, with just eight remaining at the end of the financial year.

Only six companies had female leadership throughout the financial year, with their average salary amounting to £2.69 million.

Male CEOs, on the other hand, had an average salary of £4.19 million.

‘Huge pay gap between CEOs and wider UK workforce’

The pay rises follow calls for bigger and better pay packages for city bosses.

Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO of the London Stock Exchange, said earlier this year that bosses are being paid “significantly below global benchmarks” and warned that this could make it harder to attract senior executives who may seek better pay elsewhere. .

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The High Pay Center report argued that overspending on higher wages by leading companies makes it harder to finance pay rises for the wider UK workforce.

“The huge pay gap between executives and the wider UK workforce is the result of factors such as the decline in trade union membership, low levels of worker participation in business decision-making and a company culture that puts interests of investors above workers, customers, suppliers and other interested parties.

“These developments have been very good for those at the top, but it is more questionable whether they are in the interests of the country as a whole.”