Top executives in UK earn average person's annual wage in days: Survey

The top executives in Britain earned more in the first few days of 2023 than most ordinary workers earn all year, according to a new study, as the country grapples with the worsening cost-of-living crisis.

The study released by the High Pay Centre think-tank on Thursday, based on company data and official statistics, said the chief executives of London's FTSE 100-listed firms earn 103 times the median annual wage of ordinary workers as soaring inflation erodes their income.

An average worker in the country takes home £33,000 ($36,100) per year, which a chief executive pocketed in the first three working days of this year, the study noted, calling for a more "even" distribution of income.

"In the worst economic circumstances that most people can remember, it is difficult to believe that a handful of top earners are still raking in such extraordinary amounts of money," said High Pay Centre think-tank director Luke Hildyard.

A worker’s pay in the UK has seen only seen a 6 percent hike compared to the 39 percent rise in median CEO pay levels.

"The UK economy really cannot afford for such a big share of the wealth that is created by all workers to be captured by such a tiny number of people at the top,” Hilyard asserted, calling for "measures to balance the distribution of incomes more evenly."

According to an analysis by the GMB trade union, it would take a 999 ambulance call handler almost 150 years to match the pay of the average chief executive in the United Kingdom.

“It’s an utter disgrace,” said Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB, which represents ambulance workers set to go on strike next week. “NHS workers and others are being forced onto the picket lines just to make ends meet while these fat cats get the cream.”

Embattled British PM Sunak promises to tackle pressing problems facing country

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Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, the unions’ umbrella body, called on the government to intervene to “bring back some fairness on pay” as many lower-paid workers struggle with swinging real-term cuts to their income.

“Everyone deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. But while working people are told not to ask for more, top pay is soaring,” he said.

“We need government action to bring back some fairness on pay. Workers should have seats on executive pay committees to bring some common sense to top pay. And ministers must set out plans for fair pay for everyone, starting by agreeing to pay negotiations in the public sector.”

Everyone in the top 1 percent of full-time UK earners, making at least 145,000 pounds, will have overtaken the annual pay of the median full-time worker by 23rd March, according to the report.

Currently, Britain is gripped by the cost-of-living crisis that has led to sweeping protests and public outrage in recent months.

The UK imports around 50 percent of its gas from other countries, and because gas is used to generate a third of the country's electricity, the rise in gas prices has also affected electricity prices.

The UK is the worst affected country in Western Europe with its annual rate of inflation reaching 11.1 percent in October 2022.

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