UK bosses have already made more money in 2014 than the average worker will earn in the whole year
Britain’s top bosses have already made more money in 2014 than the average UK worker earns in an entire year, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre think-tank.
The calculations show that earnings for company executives returning to work this Monday will pass the UK average salary of £26,500 by mid-morning on ‘fatcat Wednesday.’
FTSE 100 Chief Executives are paid an average £4.3 million, equivalent to hourly pay of well over £1,000. Executive pay has increased by 74% over the past decade, while wages for ordinary workers have remained flat.
High Pay Centre Director Deborah Hargreaves said: ‘Fatcat Wednesday’ highlights how insensitive big company executives have become. When top bosses take home more in two and a half days than the average worker earns in a year, there is clearly something wrong with the way pay is set for both bosses and workers.’
Notes to editors:
- The average FTSE 100 CEO took home £4,253,000 in 2012 (the most recent year for which figures are available). Even when making the very generous assumptions that they work 12 hours a day, including three out of every 4 weekends, and take less than 10 days holiday per year, this still works out at about £1,100 per hour, meaning that it would take just over 24 hours work to surpass the UK average of £26,500
- The High Pay Centre is an independent think-tank providing research and analysis on top pay. We work to resolve the policy and market failures relating to executive pay and corporate governance that have enabled such a wide gap between pay for the super-rich and everyone else to open up.
Contact:
Luke Hildyard – Head of Research, High Pay Centre
- T: 07859 015543
- E: luke.hildyard@highpaycentre.org