FTSE 100 CEOs are already paid the average annual worker’s salary – and it’s faster than ever before by 2023

Bosses at the UK’s biggest companies have already earned the equivalent of Britain’s median annual salary this year, according to new research, with top CEOs earning thousands of pounds ahead of the third working day in 2023.

According to calculations published on Thursday by the High Pay Center, a London-based thinktank that campaigns for pay equality, the median CEO pay of FTSE 100 companies—based on an analysis of the latest which CEO pay disclosures and government salary statistics—now stands at £3.41 million ($4.1 million).

That’s 103 times the median full-time worker’s annual salary of £33,000 ($39,620).

London’s FTSE 100 index is made up of the largest companies listed in London by market capitalization, including Rio Tinto, HSBC, Vodafone and Shell.

Thursday’s report also found that while the median FTSE 100 CEO salary has risen by 39% since January last year, the median worker’s salary has risen by 6% over the same period. The UK’s latest annual inflation reading, for November, was 10.7%, with the consumer price index hovering at or near 10% for most of 2022.

The High Pay Center’s findings mean that as of 2 p.m. London (9 a.m. ET) on Thursday, the median CEO’s earnings will exceed the median annual salary for a full-time worker in UK.

As January 2 is a public holiday, that means the mark will be reached before the end of Britain’s third working day in 2023.

This year, the milestone will be reached nine working hours earlier than in 2022, according to the analysis of the organization.

The phenomenon is not limited to Britain.

Bosses at France’s most valuable public company are also set to receive an average annual French employee salary on Thursday, according to Oxfamwhile chief executives in countries from the US to Sweden also earn an average annual worker income in a few days.

In the UK, CEOs aren’t the only ones set to make the median annual salary some day this year, a report by the High Pay Center shows.

Partners at London’s most prestigious law firms, whose median salary stands at £1.95 million ($2.3 million), would have earned £33,000 on January 9, the thinktank said, while top bankers at one of five banks in the FTSE 100 earn. achieved success on January 17.

Cost of living crisis

While inflation has hit many western states, Britain has been hit particularly hard – and economists widely believe that things will the UK will only get worsewarned that the country would experience a “deeper and longer recession” than any other G7 country.

The UK is now embroiled in its worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, along with inflation reached a 41-year high last year as an economic downturn saw the country end in 2022 collapse on the brink of a recession.

Along with an ongoing energy crisis that has seen millions of households around the UK fall into “fuel poverty,” the country’s food price inflation hit a record high at the end of 2022 while real wages fell at a record rate as inflation continues to bite into the purchasing power of Britons.

The continued pressure led to widespread labor strikes across the countrywith train and bus drivers, teachers, driving test examiners, nurses and ambulance drivers set to strike in various parts of the UK in January, after week of union action by the end of 2022.

‘Little public support’ for high CEO pay

In a statement on Thursday, the Director of the High Pay Center, Luke Hildyard, said that measures should be implemented to balance the distribution of income more evenly so that the reduction in living standards of Britain will answer.

“In the worst economic conditions that most people can remember, it’s hard to believe that some of the top earners are still raking in such extraordinary amounts of money,” he said.

“The UK economy simply cannot afford for such a large share of the wealth created by all the workers to be taken by such a small number of people at the top.”

Meanwhile, Jo Wittams, co-executive director of the British charity Equality Trust, spoke luck on Thursday that his organization’s research showed that 70% of Brits support government regulation of CEO pay.

“It’s easy to portray this as a reward for hard work, but these rewards are not evenly balanced. CEOs and shareholders are reaping the benefits of record profits, while workers are encouraged to take real term salary cuts, despite increased productivity,” he said.

“Companies need to be aware of the broader economic context in which they operate – knowing that with decades of wage stagnation for workers combined with inflation reaching 40-year highs, there is little public support for ever-increasing executive pay.”

Our new weekly Impact Report newsletter explores how ESG news and trends are shaping the roles and responsibilities of today’s executives. Subscribe here.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *