THE ECONOMY is only working for those at the top, campaigners warned today as new research found the widening gap between highest and lowest earners has reached new heights.

Findings from the High Pay Centre said the pay ratio between the median FTSE 100 chief executive and workers was 130 to one, up from 124 to one last year and marking the widest gap in eight years.

Executives in Britain’s top firms made a median £5.06 million last year, marking the highest level on record, up 8.6 per cent from £4.66m in 2024-25.

The total amount FTSE 100 companies spent paying executives in the past year was £850m, the think tank said.

Excessive spending on a company’s top earners often comes at the expense of pay increases for the rest of the workforce, researchers explained.

Tax Justice UK deputy director Caitlin Boswell said the widening gap is “yet another sign that the economy is only working well for those at the top, while everyone else is left trying to stretch their money further and further.”

She told the Morning Star: “A fairer tax system can help rebalance the economy by investing in things that will make all our lives better, like building hundreds of thousands of council homes, transforming social care so it provides the support our loved ones need, and getting more money into towns across the country which have been ignored for too long.”

The High Pay Centre demanded reforms to regulations affecting the corporate pay-setting process.

Interim director Andrew Speke said the “substantial growth in the gap between executive and worker pay in the past year should be a wake-up call to those who’ve turned a blind eye to rising executive pay.

“As our findings show, this is the fourth year in a row that FTSE 100 executive pay has risen, and this growth is starting to substantially outstrip growth in worker pay.”

The think tank said it hoped “a change in prime minister and a renewed focus on economic fairness will lead to economic inequality and corporate excess returning up the political agenda.

“A failure to tackle such disproportionate and inefficient levels of inequality will only further reduce faith in our current economic model and help to accelerate the rise of right-wing populism.”