The median FTSE 100 CEO’s earnings for 2023 will surpass the median annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 2pm on Thursday 5 January, after having worked around 30 hours, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre.
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.
The figures highlight how top pay has increased dramatically following the easing of the Covid-19 pandemic, after falling while lockdowns and other economic restrictions were in place.
Last year, executive pay data suggested that CEOs would have to wait until the fourth working day of 2022 to overtake the median worker’s annual salary, while this year they will accomplish the feat in under three days.
Median FTSE 100 CEO pay currently stands at £3.41 million, 103 times the median full time worker’s pay of £33,000. This represents a 39% increase on median CEO pay levels as of January 2022, while the median worker’s pay has only increased by 6% over the same period.
Centre Director, Luke Hildyard said:
In the worst economic circumstances that most people can remember, it is difficult to believe that a handful of top earners are still raking in such extraordinary amounts of money.
The UK economy really cannot afford for such a big share of the wealth that is created by all workers to be captured by such a tiny number of people at the top. To address declining living standards for the majority, we need measures to balance the distribution of incomes more evenly.
