Study shows high-rank British CEOs make more money in one year than average employee in lifetime

(MENAFN) A recent study reveals that compensation for the CEOs of Britain’s top companies has reached unprecedented levels, with some executives earning more in a single year than the average worker's entire career earnings. The research, conducted by the High Pay Centre, a United Kingdom think tank dedicated to examining economic inequality, highlights a stark disparity between executive pay and the median salary of full-time workers.

In 2023, the median salary for a chief executive of a FTSE 100 company soared to EUR4.19 million (USD5.34 million), marking the highest median executive pay on record. This represents a 2.2 percent increase from the previous year. In contrast, the median annual earnings of a full-time worker in the United Kingdom stood at EUR34,963, meaning that top executives' annual compensation is now 120 times greater than the earnings of the median worker over their entire career.

The study also noted a significant rise in the number of FTSE 100 companies offering eight-figure salaries. The number of firms providing pay packages exceeding EUR10 million more than doubled from four in 2022 to nine in 2023.

AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot was identified as the highest-paid FTSE 100 CEO, earning EUR16.85 million in 2023—an increase from EUR15.3 million the previous year. This amount is 482 times the median salary of a full-time United Kingdom worker.

The High Pay Centre's report argues that the escalating compensation for top executives is exacerbating the difficulty of securing wage increases for the broader workforce, underscoring growing concerns about economic inequality and the sustainability of such disparities.

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