Thinktank says analysis shows ‘obscene levels of pay inequality’ and calls for workers to be given places on company boards
The bosses of Britain’s biggest companies will have made more money in 2024 by Thursday lunchtime than the average UK worker will earn in the entire year, according to analysis of vast pay gaps amid strike action and the cost of living crisis.
The High Pay Centre, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for workers, said that by 1pm on the third working day of the year, a FTSE 100 chief executive will have been paid more on an hourly basis than a UK worker’s annual salary of £34,963, based on median average remuneration figures for both groups.
Other FTSE 350 executives (comprising FTSE 100 executives other than the CEO, plus CEOs and other executives of FTSE 250 companies) earn an average of £1.3m, so would only need to work until 10 January for their pay to overtake the average worker.
Partners at so-called “magic circle” law firms earn an average of £1.9m, so would need to work until 8 January to do the same.
Partners at the “big four” accountancy firms have an average pay of £870,000, so would need to work until 16 January.
Top bankers (so-called “material risk takers”) at the UK’s five biggest banks earn £807,000 on average, and will also overtake average workers by 16 January.
Everyone in the top 1% of full-time UK earners earns at least £145,000, so will overtake average median full-time worker by 29 March.
