High Pay Centre and TUC research finds that median FTSE 100 CEO pay increased 39% in 2021

• Median CEO pay also up on pre pandemic levels – increase of 5% from £3.25m median CEO pay in 2019. 
• Median CEO pay 109 times that of the median UK full-time worker, compared to 79 times in 2020 and 107 times in 2019.
• FTSE 100 firms spent £720.21m on the pay of 224 executives

New research published today by the High Pay Centre think tank and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has found that the pay of the CEOs of Britain’s biggest companies surged by 39% in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Median pay for a FTSE 100 CEO increased from £2.46m in 2020 to £3.41m in 2021. CEO pay has also surpassed the £3.25m median recorded in 2019. 

The research shows that the median FTSE 100 CEO is now paid 109 times the median UK full-time worker, up from 79 times in 2020 and 107 times in 2019.

Other key findings include:

• FTSE 100 firms spent nearly three-quarters of a billion on executive pay, with £720.21m awarded to 224 executives
• FTSE 250 CEOs saw a similar 38% pay increase, with median pay rising from £1.25m in 2020 to £1.72m in 2021.
• FTSE 100 CEOs annual bonuses leapt to £1.4m compared to £828k in 2020 and £1.1m in 2019. 90% of CEOs received a bonus.

The High Pay Centre and the TUC are calling for reforms to regulations affecting corporate pay-setting process including:

• Requirements for companies to include a minimum of two elected workforce representatives on the remuneration committees that set pay
• Guaranteed trade union access to workplaces to tell workers about the benefits of union membership and collective bargaining 
• Requirements for companies to provide more detailed disclosure of pay for top earners beyond the executives, and low earners including indirectly employed workers, enabling more informed pay negotiations at individual companies and a clearer debate about pay inequality more generally

High Pay Centre Director, Luke Hildyard said:

“Very high executive pay is a big part of the cost of living problem. If large employers are paying millions more to already very wealthy executives, that makes it harder to fund pay increases for low and middle-income workers.

“If incomes in the UK were shared more evenly, that would significantly raise the living standards of the people hit hardest by the current economic crisis, while those at the top probably wouldn’t notice much difference to their lifestyles.”

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Workers deserve a fair share of the wealth they create. But right now, CEO pay is soaring while working people experience the biggest real wage falls in twenty years.

“These unbalanced pay policies have seen the gap widen between workers and bosses this year, adding to the cost of living crisis.

“We need stronger rules to rein in executive pay. This should include worker representatives on the committees that set top pay, and elected seats for workers on company boards. This approach is already commonplace in many countries and works very well. The government should give UK workers this opportunity too.”