High Pay Day 2024

    Hat tip High Pay Centre and brilliant cartoon which I cannot remember source. 

"We have estimated that FTSE 100 CEOs’ earnings for 2024 will surpass the median UK worker’s full time annual salary today, just before 1pm on Thursday 4 January. FTSE 100 bosses’ will have to work one hour fewer to overtake UK median worker than they did in 2023 Top city lawyers will have to wait until the beginning of next week to surpass the median worker’s annual pay, while leading bankers will have to wait until 17th January Calculations based on most recent available figures for CEOs and other top professions, plus Government data on UK workers’ pay According to our calculations, median FTSE 100 CEO’s earnings for 2024 will surpass the median annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 1pm on Thursday 4 January. The calculations are based on our analysis of the most recent CEO pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports, combined with government statistics showing pay levels across the UK economy. As with last year, the executive pay data suggests that CEOs will have to wait until the third working day of 2024 to surpass the annual pay of the median worker. Median FTSE 100 CEO pay (excluding pension) currently stands at £3.81 million, 109 times the median full time worker’s pay of £34,963. This represents an 9.5% increase on median CEO pay levels as of March 2023, while the median worker’s pay has increased by 6%. The figures come against a backdrop of calls from leading figures in the city and big business for UK CEOs to be paid more. In December 2023 Legal and General Investment Management adjusted their executive pay guidelines to permit firms they invest in to offer more generous incentive payments, while earlier in the year the London Stock Exchange Chief Executive argued that low CEO pay levels create a risk to the UK economy. How other top earners compare We have used other publicly available data to estimate how long it would take other top earners to surpass the median UK worker’s full time earnings. Other FTSE 350 executives (comprised of FTSE 100 executives other than the CEO, plus CEOs and other executives of FTSE 250 companies), median pay £1.32m, will need to work until 10th January for their pay to overtake the annual pay of the median UK worker A partner at a ‘magic circle’ law firm, average pay £1.92m, would need to work until 8th January A partner at a ‘Big Four’ Accountancy firm, average pay £871k, would need to work until 16th January A top banker (so-called ‘material risk taker’) at one of the five FTSE 100 listed banks, average pay £807k, would need to work until 16th January Everyone in the top 1% of full time UK earners, making at least £145k, will have overtaken the annual pay of the median full time worker by 29th March The research has been covered widely in the media including by the BBC, the Guardian, the Independent, the Daily Mail, the Sun and the Mirror."