Fat cats’ average salary soars to £ 5m

THE average pay of a chief executive in leading companies is almost £ 5million, 183 times that of workers, a new study has revealed.

The top 10 highest- paid chief executives were paid more than £ 156million in 2014, prompting calls for action to curb executive pay.

Research among FTSE 100 companies by the High Pay Centre think- tank found that average pay jumped to £ 4.96million in 2014, com- pared with £ 4.13million in 2010, 183 times the earnings of average workers, up from 160 times in 2010.

High Pay Centre director Deborah Hargreaves said: “Pay packages of this size go far beyond what is sensible to reward top executives.

“The Coalition Government introduced some welcome reforms in 2013.

“However these reforms didn’t do nearly enough to start building a pay culture where everyone is rewarded fairly for the work they do.”

The average ratio between FTSE 100 chief executives and the wages of their employees was 148 last year, up from 146 in 2013.

The report said changes to regulations so that UK- listed companies have to publish pay details appear to have had no effect in curbing “excessive” executive pay.

The reforms increased the powers of shareholders to hold companies to account but they have shown “little interest” in doing so, said the High Pay Centre.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Inequality is reaching stratospheric levels.”

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey commented: “CEOs ought to be putting cash into creating jobs instead of greedily hosing themselves down with torrents of cash.”