The average CEO in the UK’s top 100 companies now earns £5.3m each year – that’s 386 times of that of a worker earning the National Living Wage.
The new analysis by The Equality Trust finds that over two thirds of FTSE 100 CEOs are paid more than 100 times the average UK salary and ninety per cent of FTSE 100 CEOs are paid at least 100 times more than the National Living Wage.
When you compare the CEO earnings to key-worker jobs, the analysis found that the FTSE 100 CEOs are paid: 165 times more than a nurse; 140 times more than a teacher; 132 times more than a police officer and 312 times more than a care worker.
Dr. Wanda Wyporska, executive director of The Equality Trust, says: “The people who educate our children, look after our grandparents, and keep our families safe have seen their pay frozen, while CEOs continue to gorge themselves on obscene and undeserved rewards. They’re also stretching far away from their own employees. Being a top company CEO in the UK is like being a lottery winner – every year – guaranteed.”
The figures follow the news about rising inflation and come amid ongoing fears about stagnant wages, cuts in public spending and the potential economic fallout from Brexit pushing down living standards.
The Equality Trust, a charity which works to reduce inequality, says that a combination of rising inflation and pay restraint means that average real pay is now falling in the public sector, and is expected to continue falling over the next three years. Forecasts suggest that average real pay in the public sector will fall back below 2004-05 levels by the end of the parliament (2019-20).
The charity is calling on Government to introduce mandatory reporting for large and medium businesses on the pay gap between their highest and average paid employee. Only then, it claims can we create a sense of trust and common purpose essential to build an economy and society that works for all.
“Pay inequality drives wider inequality, and we know this is bad for businesses, bad for our economy and bad for our health, our education and our wider society,” says Wyporska.
