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The bosses of FTSE 100 saw their pay rise £900,000 in a single year as they took home 120 times the salary of the average worker
The median pay of the CEOs of the UK’s biggest companies increased by 2.2% in 2023 to £4.19m, up from £4.10m the previous year, showed figures from the High Pay Centre.
The most substantial change was the increase in the number of CEOs being paid over £10m, up from four in 2022 to nine this year – the highest figure since 2017.
However, while salaries rocketed at some FTSE 100 companies, 41 companies paid their CEOs less than last year, notably BP, M&G and BAT.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot was paid the highest salary with a total package including long term incentive payments (LTIP) of £16.85m.
Next came Erik Engstrom, boss of information services and exhibitions multinational, Relx, on £13.64m, up by £5.04m.
In third spot was Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic, who joined the business in January 2023 and earned £13.61m, after being given an eye watering £9.8m pay rise, equivalent to a 255% pay rise.
The top five was rounded off with Charles Woodburn at BAE Systems on £13.45m and in fifth spot the first woman on the list was Emma Walmsley, CEO of pharma multinational GSK on £12.72m.
Then comes Pearson CEO Andy Bird on £11.27m, putting two former publishing companies at the top of the list, showing how transformation of Relx and Pearson has catapulted these businesses into some of the best performing in the UK.
This was the highest level of FTSE 100 CEO pay on record, although the growth in CEO pay levels was slower than in the past two years, when there was a post-pandemic bounce.
The High Pay Centre research showed that the median FTSE 100 CEO is now paid 120 times the median UK full time worker, down from 124:1 in 2022, but still higher than 108:1 in 2021.
In total, 11 female CEOs served for at least part of the year, with eight of those remaining at the end of the financial year. Just six companies had female leadership for the entire financial year, with their median pay amounting to £2.69m. This compared with their male counterparts who were paid £4.19m on average.
In addition, FTSE 100 firms spent £755m on the pay of 222 senior executives.
The High Pay Centre warned: ‘Excessive spending on top earners by leading firms makes it harder to fund pay increases for the wider UK workforce.
‘Reforms to regulations affecting corporate pay-setting process that the government should consider include requirements for companies to include a minimum of two elected workforce representatives on the remuneration committees that set pay, more detailed disclosure of pay for top earners beyond the executives, and a clearer debate about pay inequality.’
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