CEO pay rockets to almost £4 million a year

CEO pay has increased by 11% in the past year – but female leaders are still earning less than their male counterparts, according to research from the CIPD and the High Pay Centre.

The researchers found that found that FTSE100 CEO median pay now stands at £3.93million per year, an increase on £3.53million in 2016.

The data this year was found to have been affected by two very large pay-outs for the CEOs at Persimmon and Melrose Industries (£47.1million and £42.8million, respectively). As a result, the report leads with the median, rather than the mean figure which reduces the impact of these two outliers.

However, it still shows an increase in earnings of 11%, compared to the two per cent rise in median pay enjoyed by full-time workers over this period.