FTSE 100 bosses' pay rises to 183 times ordinary workers' salaries

The bosses of Britain's blue-chip companies saw their pay rise last year and now earn 183 times as much as ordinary workers, new research has shown.

The chief executives of the country's top 100 companies received on average £4.964 million in pay in 2014 compared to the 2013 average of £4.923 million.

Five years ago the average remuneration package was £4.129 million.

The average worker earned £27,200 in 2014, according to the Office for National Statistics, meaning FTSE bosses were paid 183 times more. That ratio is up from 182 times in 2013 and 160 times in 2010, the High Pay Centre says.

The FTSE 100 average conceals considerable disparities in the remuneration of top executives. By far the highest paid was Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, who was awarded a package worth £43m in 2014.

Ben van Beurden of Royal Dutch Shell got £19.5m and Erik Engstrom of Reed Elsevier (now known as RELX) received £16.2m.

Peter Long of Tui Travel got a £13.3m package. Dave Forsey, chief executive of Sports Direct, received just £150,000 in 2014, although he is in line for a bumper remuneration package worth £6.7m in 2015 thanks to the vesting of a share scheme.

The FTSE 100 contracted by 3% in 2014, even while average executive compensation grew.

Deborah Hargreaves, the High Pay Centre’s director, said the increasing remuneration for top bosses, often regardless of the underlying performance of their firms, suggests a failure of corporate governance.

“Pay packages of this size go far beyond what is sensible or necessary to reward and inspire top executives. It’s more likely that corporate governance structures in the UK are riddled with glaring weaknesses and conflicts of interest,” she said.