It’s Fat Cat Thursday!

FTSE chiefs have already earned average UK salary this year

THE bosses of Britain’s biggest companies have already earned more in 2018 than a typical worker will make all year after only three working days.

The heads of blue-chip FTSE 100 firms will today have pocketed over £28,758 – the typical annual salary.

They were paid an average £4.5million in 2016, the last full year for which figures are available, down from £5.4m in 2015 following outrage at obscene bonuses – but even this figure is 120 times what is paid to ordinary people.

Critics have dubbed today ‘fat cat Thursday’ and called for urgent action to end corporate excess.

They said the gulf between top earners and the rest of the country is particularly galling at a time when incomes are under pressure from high inflation, with rising prices outstripping pay increases.

Trades Union Congress general secretary Frances O’Grady said: ‘Workers are

‘Grossly excessive and unjustifiable’

suffering the longest pay squeeze since Napoleonic times ... but fat cat bosses are still getting salaries that look like telephone numbers.’

Stefan Stern of the High Pay Centre, which produced the research alongside human resources trade body CIPD, said: ‘There are still grossly excessive and unjustifiable gaps between the top and the rest of the workforce.’

Sir Martin Sorrell of advertising giant WPP topped the list with a pay packet of £48.1million. Arnold Donald, 63, of cruise company Carnival was second, with a £22.4million pay-out.

LAWYERS have dubbed January 8 ‘Divorce Day’ because of the spike in couples considering ending their marriage after the festive period.

In January 2017, relationship charity Relate received a 24 per cent increase in calls to their helpline compared with the average month, and its councillors expect a similar spike this year.