FTSE 100 bosses now paid an average 130 times as much as their employees

High Pay Centre analysis suggests many top bosses are still paid hundreds of times as much as their staff

Correction of error: The Randgold Resources CEO to worker pay ratio was incorrectly calculated by including employees of contractors in the total number of employees used to calculate the ratio. The correct Randgold ratio is 231:1  which makes the overall average CEO to worker pay ratio for the FTSE 100 130:1.

FTSE 100 bosses paid 130 times their average employee

Britain’s top executives are now paid around 130 times their average employee, according to analysis released today by the High Pay Centre think-tank.

The figures illustrate the dramatic rise in executive pay in relation to most UK workers over the past three decades. In 1998, the average FTSE 100 CEO was paid 47 times their average employee. Analysis of six major UK companies in 1980 found that CEOs were paid between 13 and 44 times their average employee.

The High Pay Centre compared pay for FTSE 100 Chief Executives recorded by companies in their annual reports to figures for average pay at each company, provided by Pensions and Investment Research Consultants (PIRC), in order to calculate the ratios.

The pay gap was highest at media company WPP where CEO Martin Sorrell took home a pay package nearly 800 times bigger than his employees, while Next boss Lord Wolfson was awarded pay worth 459 times as much as his average employee, but did distribute his bonus to staff. The pay ratio was highest at catering group Compass, where CEO Richard Cousins made 418 times as much as the average employee.

* CEO pay figures rounded to 1dp **Wolfson donated annual bonus element of his pay package to staff  ***Cumulative total paid for CEO role

Commenting on the figures, High Pay Centre Director Deborah Hargreaves said:

While Government figures confirm that wages for ordinary workers keep falling, it’s clear that not everyone is feeling the pain.

When bosses make hundreds of times as much money as the rest of the workforce, it creates a deep sense of unfairness.

Britain’s executives haven’t got so much better over the past two decades. The only reason why their pay has increased so rapidly compared to their employees is that they are able to get away with it. The Government needs to take more radical action on top pay to deliver a fair economy that ordinary people can have faith in.

Notes to editors:

• All analysis is based on the companies’ own figures, taken from their most recently-published annual reports – UK-listed companies are required to disclose an annual ‘single figure’ for the total pay awarded to their Chief Executive, as well as details of their number of employees and their total wage and salary costs. The High Pay Centre compiled the executive pay figures, while PIRC calculated the average employees pay for each company. Where companies provided figures in different currencies, we have converted to sterling using the exchange rate on the date of the company’s financial year end.
• The Manifest/MM&K annual Director’s Total Remuneration report estimated that pay received by the average FTSE 100 Chief Executive increased from £4.1 million to £4.7 million last year – http://blog.manifest.co.uk/2014/07/6533.html#sthash.TcDyBhKY.7ulFpd5j.dpbs
• The High Pay Centre’s recent report ‘Reform Agenda’ called for a debate on more radical measures to address the widening gap between the super rich and everyone else, including a maximum pay ratio; worker representation on company boards and remuneration committees; and a legally-binding target for a reduction in inequality – https://highpaycentre.org/pubs/reform-agenda-how-to-make-top-pay-fairer
• These figures refer to CEO pay in relation to the average employee at the company in question, as opposed to the UK as a whole. The average pay realised by a FTSE 100 Chief Executive in 2013 is roughly 174 times that of the average UK worker.

Contact

• Luke Hildyard, Deputy Director, the High Pay Centre – T:020 7922 7865/07859 015543 E: luke.hildyard@highpaycentre.org