FTSE 100 chief executives’ pay rebounds to 2017 ranges

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The pay of FTSE 100 chief executives surged by £560,000 to a mean of virtually £5mn final yr, rebounding to ranges not seen since 2017. 

The figures come as UK executives push for larger payouts to compete with worldwide rivals, significantly within the US, the place firm bosses are paid considerably extra. 

The rise in common pay was pushed by “a small variety of firms making actually giant pay awards relatively than huge will increase throughout the board”, stated Luke Hildyard, director on the Excessive Pay Centre think-tank, which compiled the info. 

The variety of firms on the blue-chip index paying their bosses greater than £10mn rose from 4 in 2022 to 9 in 2023.

Median pay rose extra modestly from £4.1mn to £4.19mn, in accordance with the Excessive Pay Centre’s evaluation of firm disclosures, although this was nonetheless the very best since 2009, the earliest yr for which it has collected the info.

AstraZeneca chief government Sir Pascal Soriot remained the highest-paid FTSE boss with whole pay of £16.9mn, up from £15.1mn a yr earlier. 

Erik Engstrom and Charles Woodburn — the heads of Relx and BAE Techniques — had been every paid greater than £13mn. 

Rolls-Royce boss Tufan Erginbilgiç obtained related remuneration however this included a once-off £7.5mn share award, which is able to not totally vest till 2028, to compensate him for shares he forfeited when he joined from his earlier personal fairness job. 

Soriot’s pay may rise once more this yr as AstraZeneca in latest months joined giant UK-listed teams corresponding to London Inventory Change Group and Smith & Nephew in successful shareholder backing for larger government pay packages.

LSEG boss David Schwimmer stated in February: “If London has an ambition to be a globally main monetary centre and to draw world-class firms, which means it has to draw world-class expertise.”

The evaluation covers chief executives’ whole pay packages, together with wage, bonuses, pension and incentive plans.

Firms argue that almost all of executives’ pay comes from bonuses and share awards linked to efficiency. Relx’s share value has risen about seven-fold since Engstrom took over in 2009, for instance.

However the figures can be seized on by opponents of excessive pay, with the median FTSE 100 chief now paid 120 occasions the median full-time British employee, in accordance with the Excessive Pay Centre. 

Hildyard blamed the hole on “the decline of commerce union membership, low ranges of employee participation in enterprise decision-making and a enterprise tradition that places the pursuits of traders earlier than staff, clients, suppliers and different stakeholders”. 

“These developments have been superb for these on the prime, however it’s extra questionable whether or not they’re within the pursuits of the nation as an entire,” he added. 

The UK’s new Labour authorities has pledged to make it simpler for unions to achieve statutory recognition and enhance their rights to entry workplaces to organise and recruit. 

GSK chief government Dame Emma Walmsley’s remuneration of £12.7mn made her the highest-paid lady. 

The median pay for the six firms that had feminine chief executives for the entire yr was slightly below £2.7mn, in contrast with nearly £4.2mn for males.