Regular workers now have to work for 167 years to make as much as CEOs do in one - and the problem is getting worse
- Chief Executive pay at Britain's largest companies grew six times faster than the wider workforce from 2016 to 2017, a review by The High Pay Centre has found.
- Median pay of bosses rose 11% to £3.9 million while the salaries of employees struggled to keep up with inflation, the study found.
- It revealed that an employee on a median salary of £23,474 would have to work 167 years to make the same amount that a FTSE 100 boss on median pay makes in a year
Chief executive pay at Britain's largest listed companies grew six times faster than the salaries of the wider workforce, as pay for an average FTSE 100 CEO rose to £3.9 million ($5 million per year).
CEO median pay rose 11% among FTSE 100 bosses in 2017 as remuneration for the rest of the workforce went up by just 1.7%, an annual review by The High Pay Centre has found.
The report revealed that an employee on a median salary of £23,474 would have to work 167 years to make the same amount that a FTSE 100 boss on median pay makes in a year, up from 153 years in 2016.
The CEO's with the largest pay were Simon Peckham, the boss of corporate turnaround firm Melrose at £42.8 million per year, and Jeff Fairburn of housing and construction firm Persimmon at £47.1 million, more than 20 times his pay in 2016.
The review's median figures give an accurate representation of pay for the middle-of-the road worker and CEO without the risk of being skewed by large and small anomalies at either end of the scale as averages can be.
When calculated by averages the figures are higher still, showing a 23% increase in CEO pay from 2016 to 2017.
"Investors have repeatedly highlighted their concerns with excessive CEO pay, so it is frustrating that the message does not appear to be getting through to some FTSE 100 boardrooms," Andrew Ninian, director of stewardship and corporate governance at the Investment Association told The Guardian.
This year we have seen more FTSE 100 companies get significant votes against their remuneration reports than in previous years," he added.
The report which was put together by Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development comes after statistics released on Tuesday showed that wage growth in Britain slowed to its weakest rate in 43 years.
Chair of UK Parliament's House of Commons business committee, Rachel Reeves, said that "Excessive executive pay undermines public trust in business. When CEOs are happily banking ever-larger bonuses while average worker pay is squeezed, then something is going very wrong."