£100M TOP 10 FATCATS
Big chiefs’ wages soared by 39%
BRITAIN’S 10 top fatcats raked in more than £100million between them last year, 39% up on 2020.
It means they now earn an average of 109 times more than a typical working person.
Research by the The High Pay Centre think-tank and the TUC reveals chiefs of the biggest London stock exchange firms have even more millions to burn as the rest of us face crippling energy bills.
The fatcats’ chart now has a new entry straight in at No.1 with Sebastien de Montessus, of metals and mining giant Endeavour, on £16.85million.
The Frenchman, 47, took over from Covid vaccine AstraZeneca boss Pascal
Soirot, 63, now at No.2 with £13.86million. In third spot is Irishman Albert Manifold, 59, who raked in £11.68million bossing building materials group CRH.
Shell’s Dutch chief executive Ben van Beurden, 64, is in 18th place on £6.19million.
And National Grid boss John Pettigrew, 63, is 26th with £5.07million and has pocketed nearly £30million since taking over the electricity and gas distributor in 2016.
Luke Hildyard, of the High Pay Centre, said: “The role demands nothing more than a competent manager
who should really be paid in the hundreds of thousands.”
In all, 224 FTSE 100 executives took nearly £750million in pay making the battle against inflation more difficult.
Mr Hildyard said: “If large employers pay millions more to already wealthy executives, it makes it harder to fund pay increases for workers.”
The TUC and the Pay Centre want reforms to executive pay, with workforce representatives on remuneration committees and earnings transparency. The TUC also demands a £15 minimum hourly wage. General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “For too long workers have been told businesses can’t afford to pay them more.”
Prof Jim Shackleton, of the Institue for Economic Affairs, said: “Most of these companies are multinationals listed here because of our favourable investment climate. This hugely benefits the UK and the taxpayer.”