Top U.K. CEOs Exceed Annual Average Pay in Just Four Days

(Bloomberg) -- Chief executive officers running Britain's biggest companies will have earned more by Friday morning than an average full-time employee makes in a whole year.

According to a report published by the High Pay Centre, a London-based think tank, the milestone will have been reached by 9 a.m., just four working days into the new year.

The report, which looks at salaries awarded to some of the U.K.'s highest paid CEOs such as Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca Plc and Brian Cassin of Experian Plc, is the latest in a series that monitors the gap between FTSE 100 executives and much of the rest of the U.K. workforce. This year was the first time in over a decade that CEOs needed to work into a fourth day in order to exceed average annual worker pay.

The High Pay Centre said its calculations are based on previous analyses of annual reports, as well as government statistics. According to an August study by the group, the highest earning executive in 2020 was AstraZeneca's Soriot, who made 15.45 million pounds ($21 million) that year. Overall in 2020, CEOs at FTSE 100 companies saw a 17% decline in median pay, amid temporary measures introduced during the pandemic such as bonus cancellations.

Figures for the financial year ending in 2021 haven't been disclosed for most companies in the British flagship stock index but, among those that made the numbers public, 57% recorded an increase on 2020 levels, the High Pay Centre said.

LAST YEAR: U.K. CEOs Earn More in Days Than Hourly Workers Paid All Year

Public Discontent

A privileged upbringing and government policy are seen as some of the biggest reasons behind the disparity in compensation, according to a poll conducted by the think tank and Survation. More than half of those responding also said they didn't believe higher earners work harder or contribute more to society than lower paid workers.

“The boards that set executive pay justify very high pay-outs on the basis that those at the top work harder or do more important jobs than the rest of us, but these findings show that this assumption isn't shared by the general public,” the High Pay Centre said. “Policies such as putting workers directors onto pay-setting committees could introduce some valuable ‘real world' perspective into decisions on pay.”

U.K. executive pay is under growing scrutiny also from asset managers, who last year wrote to companies asking for those that had received financial support from the government to show restraint when deciding on executive pay and bonuses.