Tesco’s boss was paid more than £4m last year even as shoppers faced soaring food prices.
Ken Murphy took home £4.44m as his £1.37m salary was topped up with bonuses and other benefits.
While this was less than the £4.75m he earned the previous year, critics said it was ‘a bad look for the Tesco’ given many customers are struggling with the soaring cost of food. Inflation in the UK is running at just over 10 per cent – but average food prices are up nearly 20 per cent on a year ago.
Pushing the boat out: Ken Murphy’s pay is 200 times higher than the average Tesco salary of around £20,000
And Murphy’s pay is 200 times higher than the average Tesco salary of around £20,000.
It is also understood Murphy, born in Cork, is registered for tax in Ireland and pays a lower rate there than he would in the UK.
Andrew Speke from the High Pay Centre think tank said: ‘This is a bad look for the Tesco boss given the current climate and given that food prices are so high.
‘It should be prioritising keeping food prices low and wages high for its shop floor workers.’
The pay out follows a turbulent week for Tesco after its chairman John Allan was forced to deny that he touched women’s bottoms on two separate occasions. He was paid £713,000, up from £695,000 the year before.
There is widespread anger over so-called ‘supermarket profiteering’ with grocers accused of cashing in on rising prices. Tesco made sales of £57.7billion last year, on which it made a profit of £2.6billion.
MPs are investigating rising food prices and whether parts of the supply chain are ‘unduly’ benefiting from grocery inflation.
