FTSE 100 bosses see pay packets soar amid cost of living crisis
A new report shows that median FTSE 100 CEO pay increased from £3.38m in 2021 to £3.91m last year.
The new figures, from the High Pay Centre, show that CEO pay is now 118 times that of the median UK full-time worker – up from 108 times in 2021 and 79 times in 2020.
This is the highest level of median pay since 2017, and is an increase of 16% on the median FTSE 100 CEO pay in 2021.
Of the top 10 highest-paid CEOs, Brian Cassin of Nottingham-based Experian came in at number five, with annual pay of £9.94m last year.
The list is headed by Astra Zeneca boss Pascal Soriot, who earned £15.32m last year.
Other names include Bernard Looney of BP (£10.03m) and Shell’s Ben van Beurden (£9.7m).
The figures also show that FTSE 350 firms spent over a billion on executive pay, with £1.33bn awarded to 570 executives.
Some 96% of FTSE 100 companies paid their CEO an annual bonus, up from 87% in 2021. 74% of FTSE 100 companies paid their CEO long-term incentive (LTI), compared to 71% in 2021.
The High Pay Centre says that how major employers distribute the wealth that their workforce creates has a big impact on people’s living standards.
It is alling for reforms to regulations affecting the corporate pay-setting process including: requirements for companies to include a minimum of two elected workforce representatives on the remuneration committees that set pay; and requirements for companies to provide more detailed disclosure of pay for top earners beyond the executives, and low earners including indirectly employed workers, enabling more informed pay negotiations at individual companies and a clearer debate about pay inequality more generally.
High Pay Centre director, Luke Hildyard, said: “How major employers distribute the wealth that their workforce creates has a big impact on people’s living standards.
“We need to give workers more voice on company boards, strengthen trade union rights and enable low- and middle- income earners to get a fairer share in relation to those at the top.”
