UK wage gap widens as CEOs earn 118 times median of full-time workers

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Aug 2023 00:06

The ratio of the median CEO's pay to a median UK full time worker was 79 times in 2020, 108 times in 2021, and 118 in 2023, British think tank High Pay Centre said.

People walk outside the BBC Headquarters in London, Britain, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 (AP)

New research revealed on Monday that the CEOs of the UK's biggest companies saw their wages increase by 16% in 2022, amounting to earnings 118 times the median UK full-time worker's.

According to the annual research from the High Pay Centre, citing data from the FTSE 100, the median pay of a CEO reached 3.91 million pounds ($5 million) in 2022 -- the highest level since 2017 and 500,000 pounds up in 2021.

The ratio of the median CEO's pay to a median UK full-time worker was 79 times in 2020, 108 times in 2021, and 118 in 2023, the High Pay Centre said.

"At a time when so many households are struggling with living costs, an economic model that prioritizes a half a million-pound pay rise for executives who are already multi-millionaires is surely going wrong somewhere," High Pay Centre Director Luke Hildyard told AFP.

However, the pay of a British CEO remains far lower than that of a CEO in the US, the research noted.

A recent study released earlier this month showed that S&P 500 chief executives made $16.7 million on average in 2022, which is 272 times the pay of the median US workers.

Despite this, both measures declined in comparison to the prior year as CEO compensation dropped due to poor stock tunrover.

CEO pay in the UK has always posed a controversial issue, especially considering the fact that pay rises for average workers are far slower than those of executives.

The matter is of particular concern given that inflation has severely hit the country over the past years, affecting workers and small businesses alike.

"While workers in sectors across the board were forced onto picket lines to make ends meet, these top brass were trousering fortunes," Gary Smith, General Secretary of the GMB trade union, told AFP.

"If Ministers genuinely think high wages are going to cause spiraling inflation, they probably need to think about curbing pay at the top of the tree, rather than everyone else."