The FTSE 100 CEO’s earnings for 2024 will surpass the annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 1pm on Thursday 4 January, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre think tank.
The calculations are based on the High Pay Centre’s analysis of the most recent CEO pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports, combined with government statistics showing pay levels across the UK economy.
As with last year, the executive pay data suggests that CEOs will have to wait until the third working day of 2024 to surpass the annual pay of the median worker.
Median FTSE 100 CEO pay (excluding pension) currently stands at £3.81 million, 109 times the median full time worker’s pay of £34,963. This represents an 9.5% increase on median CEO pay levels as of March 2023, while the median worker’s pay has increased by 6%.
The figures come against a backdrop of calls from leading figures in the city and big business for UK CEOs to be paid more. In December 2023 Legal and General Investment Management adjusted their executive pay guidelines to permit firms they invest in to offer more generous incentive payments, while earlier in the year the London Stock Exchange Chief Executive argued that low CEO pay levels create a risk to the UK economy.
High Pay Centre Director, Luke Hildyard said:
“Lobbyists for big business and the financial services industry spent much of 2023 arguing that top earners in Britain aren’t paid enough and that we are too concerned with gaps between the super-rich and everybody else. They think that economic success is created by a tiny number of people at the top and that everybody else has very little to contribute.
When politicians listen to these misguided views, it’s unsurprising that we end up with massive inequality, and stagnating living standards for the majority of the population.”
