URGENT reforms are needed, a think tank has warned, after it revealed that fat-cat bosses at Britain’s top firms pocketed their biggest average pay packet on record last year.
According to research published today by the High Pay Centre, the median pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive was £4.19 million in 2023, up from £4.1m in 2022.
The highest-paid boss was AstraZeneca’s Pascal Soriot, who was paid £16.85m, followed by Erik Engstrom, chief of analytics giant RELX, who trousered £13.64m.
Chris O’Shea, boss of British Gas owner Centrica, saw his pay double to £8.2m.
Jonathan Bean from Fuel Poverty Action said: “Chris O’Shea’s obscene bonuses resulted from Ofgem giving British Gas an extra £500m in profits while millions of us struggled to heat our homes.
“These huge profits should be used to provide essential energy for all as part of a fairer energy system that stops firms profiting from our misery.”
According to the High Pay Centre, the average FTSE 100 boss is paid 120 times the median of the average full-time worker.
It has urged for reforms of the pay-setting process, highlighting that excessive spending on bosses’ wages is making it harder to fund increases for the wider workforce.
One such requirement could be for firms to include at least two elected workforce representatives on committees that set pay, the think tank suggested.
It also called for stronger trade union rights, including access to workplaces and a clampdown on efforts by firms to skew votes on union recognition.
