Bosses' pay up 23% as shares plunge

THE bosses of Britain's top 100 companies received pay increases of 23% last year. Their average salary was £1.6m, while the stock market value of their companies plunged by 24.4%.

The chief executives' pay rose seven times faster than that of their employees, whose average earnings increased by 3.2%.

Pay in the boardroom of the 100 FTSE companies has risen by two thirds in three years, the survey for the Guardian shows, while stock market value has fallen 50%.