Top CEOs pocket 99 times more per year than average Mansfield worker

The High Pay Centre said some of the country's lowest paid jobs have been the most important during the Covid-19 pandemic, and that income inequality may now be harder to justify.

The think tank estimates the median annual pay of FTSE 100 chief executive officers was £2.7 million – about £827.69 per hour of their 12.5-hour days – in 2020, the latest data available.

Assuming they start work at 8.30am, they had already earned a Mansfield full-time worker's 2021 median salary of £27,099 by about 4.30pm on Thursday, January 6 – just the third working day of the year.

This means it would take an average Mansfield employee 99 years to earn the annual salary of a top CEO.

The median salary in Ashfield in 2021 was £27,366, while across Nottinghamshire it was £29,932.

The median is used to stop figures being skewed by particularly small or large wages, and it is assumed CEOs work 62.5 hours a week.

Pressure

Luke Hildyard, HPC director, said: “Covid-19 has shown how much we all depend on each other. Some of the lowest-paying jobs have played the most important role to keep society functioning through the pandemic.

“With the value of the UK economy reduced, there’s also greater pressure to share what we do have more evenly.

“In this context, vast CEO to worker pay differences may be harder to justify."

The average Mansfield salary was up from £25,173 in 2020.

Danny Magill, The Equality Trust senior research officer, said: “In a year where this country has faced unprecedented economic challenges, most CEOs pay packages barely changed, showing how detached high-earning CEOs have become from the realities of ordinary working people.

“While the taxpayer supported large companies, it was essential workers that kept the economy afloat throughout the pandemic, often for low wages, with no sick pay and at great personal risk.”

With women in Mansfield earning less on average for working full-time than men – £25,712 compared with £28,602 – FTSE 100 bosses will surpass their annual wage in just 31 hours.

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