Top City executives earn £4.2m on average as FTSE 100 chief executive pay soars to record high

Top city bosses earned an average of £4.2m last year, while FTSE 100 CEO salaries soared to an all-time high.

Analysis shows that the average pay of CEOs of the largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange will rise by 2.2 percent in 2023.

And it is expected to rise further this year after top executives at major companies got huge raises.

AstraZeneca chief executive Pascal Soriot was the highest-paid City boss in 2023, taking home almost £17m.

Executive pay is back in the spotlight amid concerns that higher-paid US companies could poach top UK executives.

But companies have been criticised for giving their chief executives extraordinary salaries and bonuses while workers struggled with the cost of living crisis.

According to research by the High Pay Centre think tank, the average pay of a FTSE 100 CEO is currently 120 times that of the average full-time worker in the UK. This is down from 124 times in 2022, but still up from 108 times in 2021.

However, companies have defended the extraordinary packages, saying they are necessary to attract and retain top talent.

Pharmaceutical boss Soriot earned £16.9m in 2023, taking his total earnings to £135m over his 12-year tenure. The French businessman is on track for an even bigger payout of £18.9m this year.

Pay has been a regular source of controversy for Soriot. After earning £13m in 2018, he complained that he was “the lowest-paid CEO in the entire industry” when bosses at rival biotech firms earned more.

Soriot is credited with reviving AstraZeneca’s fortunes since taking the reins in 2012, when its shares soared more than 300 percent.

Meanwhile, analytics firm RELX paid chief executive Erik Engstrom £13.64m, up 59 per cent on the previous year. That brought his total pay since he took over in 2009 to more than £100m.

Rolls-Royce boss Tufan Erginbilgic earned £13.6m in 2023, making him the third-highest-paid boss in the FTSE 100 index. He has been hailed for leading a turnaround at the British engineering giant, and Rolls-Royce’s share price has soared around 300 per cent since he took over in January 2023.

BAE Systems boss Charles Woodburn received £13.45m, GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley took home £12.72m and Pearson chief executive Andy Bird received £11.27m.

Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, said: “The rise in average CEO pay reflects a small number of companies awarding genuinely high salaries. An increase in executive pay has been a key demand from business lobby groups in recent years.

‘This campaign has had some success and shareholders of the UK’s largest companies have become more willing to accept higher payouts.’