FTSE 100 bosses earn average UK yearly pay after only three days

The median FTSE 100 CEOs pay so far in 2024 is set to overtake the median worker’s salary for the whole year today, only four days into the year.

The pay for the bosses of the UK’s top companies will surpass the median annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 1pm on Thursday, according to calculations by think tank the High Pay Centre. That takes just 30 hours of work, one hour less than in 2023.

A typical boss of a company in London’s top-flight stock market index makes £3.8 million annually, compared to the median worker’s pay of £34,963.

CEO pay has risen faster than the general public’s, rising by 9.5% when compared to March 2023. Worker pay was up by 6% in that time.

The figures come as some in the City argue FTSE 100 bosses are paid too little. Last year, London Stock Exchange CEO Julia Hoggett said top execs were underpaid, and this made it difficult for London to keep pace with New York, where average CEO pay is even higher.

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.”