UK Facebook staff on £117k average salary

FACEBOOK’S British staff are pocketing average pay of more than £117,000 as the firm embarks on a hiring spree.

The social media giant, which recruited former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as a lobbyist last year, has taken on hundreds of extra workers as it expands in the UK, accounts show.

Last year it employed 1,965 workers, up from 1,290 the year before, who were paid a staggering £230.2million in wages – or about £117,170 each.

Employees at its seven-storey London office get free meals, nap pods, a games room and other perks. It came after strong performance, with annual revenues surging from £1.3billion to £1.7billion in 2018.

However critics lashed out at its ‘outrageous’ tax bill of just £28.5million after profits jumped by half to £96.6million. The tax bill, up from £15.8million last year, was reduced by £1.9million because of deferred tax credits and changes in rates.

The US technology company and others like it have faced criticism over how much they pay to the Treasury. Labour’s Margaret Hodge, who chairs the All-Parliamentary Group on Responsible Tax, yesterday claimed ‘little had changed’.

She tweeted: ‘This year Facebook paid £28million of tax on UK income of £1.6billion. These big corporations must pay more tax. They rely on our infrastructure, expertise, and sales so must pay their fair share into society. Still outrageous.’

And Labour’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, said: ‘How many more examples of large-scale tax avoidance does this Government need?’

Facebook’s vice president of Northern Europe, Steve Hatch, said the company was investing heavily in the UK and will employ 3,000 people here by 2020. The UK is now one of Facebook’s most important hubs for global innovation,’ he said. ‘Businesses across the country use our platforms to grow and revenue from customers supported by our UK teams is now recorded here so that any taxable profit is subject to UK tax.’

Facebook also said it spent £356.2million on research and development in the UK last year, up from £263.7million in 2017.

It hired Mr Clegg to lead its global lobbying after a string of scandals, including data breaches and concerns about how it deals with extremist content.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested re-allocating some profits and taxing rights that big tech giants pay, in countries where they have ‘significant consumer-facing activities and generate their profits’.