High Pay Center: ‘Best UK companies earn in four days more than the average employee’s earnings in the whole year’

In the UK, chief executives of the largest companies have already been paid higher this year than the average worker would expect in a full 12-month period.

This was according to a report issued by high wages center, a think-tank that fights for fairer wages for workers. They rely on the earnings of senior managers in the 100 largest companies listed on the British Stock Exchange (FTSE 100).

Four working days

The Center for Higher Pay asserted, drawing on figures from two years ago: “By breakfast this morning – hardly the fourth working day of the year – the CEO of a major corporation has already earned more than the full annual salary of a British employee.” Ago.

Then the average CEO received an annual salary of £2.7 million. This is 86 times the average annual salary of £31,285 earned by a full-time British worker.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of drugmaker AstraZeneca, has racked up the highest wages in the British economy in two years, with £15.5m. They were followed by Experian’s Brian Cassin (£10.3m), CRH’s Albert Manifold (£10m) and Rob Perrins Berkeley (£8m).

The Center for High Pay notes that “most companies have not yet disclosed their CEO salaries for the past year.” “However, among the companies that have already provided numbers, 57 percent appear to have raised CEO pay.”

Greedy managers

British trade unions are angry at the results of the study. Employer organizations describe it as disgraceful for greedy CEOs to take millions home while ordinary workers endure another year of pay cuts.

Unions have noted that CEOs have received up to 173 times more wages than the care workers who risk their lives every day on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. “However, during the pandemic, nurses have contributed far more to the UK economy than investment bankers,” they argued.

“The pandemic has clearly shown who is keeping the country going through the crisis,” said Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the British Trade Union Congress (TUC).

“In the UK there are millions of hard-working people – from caregivers and delivery staff to shop clerks – who give more than they get in return, while greedy executives get paid huge salaries. Now that the economy is out of the pandemic, we need to work on a fair economy. once again “.

“This means major reforms that will bring executive pay back to acceptable levels.”

According to O’Grady, it is essential to include employee representation on corporate remuneration committees, which are responsible for setting executive remuneration.

“In addition, financial incentives for business leaders must be replaced by profit-sharing schemes that benefit the entire workforce,” O’Grady noted. “A lot of wealth is being piled up at the top right now.”

(LL)