22 March 2017

CEO’s of FTSE 100 companies are now earning 386 Times The National Living Wage, 67% are paid more than 100 times the average UK salary; and 90% are paid at least 100 times more than the National Living Wage.

This is according to research from the Equality Trust, which also highlighted huge disparities between public sector workers and the nation’s top bosses.

CEOs take home 165 times more than a nurse, 140 times more than a teacher, 132 times more than a police officer, and 312 times more than a care worker.

Dr. Wanda Wyporska, Executive Director of The Equality Trust, commented: “The people who educate our children, look after our grandparents, and keep our families safe have seen their pay frozen, while fat cat CEOs continue to gorge themselves on obscene and undeserved rewards. They’re also stretching far away from their own employees. Being a top company CEO in the UK is like being a lottery winner – every year – guaranteed.”

On average, CEOs of FTSE 100 companies have an income of £5.3m per year, the research showed. Meanwhile, ordinary workers are seeing their pay growth slow.

“Pay inequality drives wider inequality, and we know this is bad for businesses, bad for our economy and bad for our health, our education and our wider society,” Dr Wyporska added.

The Institute of Employment Rights has set out 25 recommendations for the reform of labour law to reduce inequality and the social and economic ills related to it. In our Manifesto for Labour Law, we call for the government to repeal laws designed to weaken the voice of trade unions in our society, and promote collective bargaining at both sectoral and enterprise levels so that fair pay and conditions can be negotiated between employers and workers’ representatives throughout the economy.

We also call for workers to have a seat on company boards in order that they may cast a vote on executive pay, thus placing a check on excessive executive income.

The principles of the Manifesto for Labour Law have been adopted by the Labour Party. Click here to read more and purchase your copy