Survey finds executive pay up 10%
Despite major losses among FTSE 100 companies, directors at these companies saw their basic salaries soar 10% last year.
In the midst of the worst global recession in decades, these companies lost nearly a third of their value but their salary continued to rise.
The Guardian’s annual survey of boardroom pay discovered that full-and part-time directors of the FTSE 100 shared more than £1 billion between them.
The findings show that the average chief executive of a blue-chip company now earns a basic salary of £791,000.
However, once bonus payments have been added, as well as share awards and the value of benefits ranging from cars and drivers to school fees and dental work, the average pay package rises significantly.
The rise in boardroom pay, over double the rate of inflation last year, came as many top companies slashed thousands of jobs and imposed pay freezes.
The survey was released just a few days after a report found that the pensions of top company directors have risen by almost a quarter since last year to nearly £250,000 a year.
Commenting on the Guardian’s findings, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, said: “The analysis shows the breathtaking cynicism involved in a lot of executive pay deals, which are unrelated to either personal or corporate performance and involve people who are very well off helping themselves to larger salaries when private sector wages in many companies are being cut.”
Meanwhile, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, said: “The recession has done nothing to stop the gap between top directors and the rest of their staff getting wider every year.
“It is even more offensive when the Institute of Directors has called for spending cuts that would hit pensioners, the poor and low-paid public sector staff. We’ve already had the 1980s-style recession, it looks depressingly like we are going back to 1980s greed-is-good politics, too,” added Mr Barber.
Last year, the highest paid executive was 53-year-old Bart Becht, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser. He was rewarded with more than £36 million in pay, bonuses and share incentive schemes.
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