'Maximum wage' calls | CEOs of UK's top firms earn 52x more than their staff

The gap between CEO and worker pay gaps across the FTSE 350 have shown little sign of narrowing over the past five years, according to new analysis.

Funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, the data - drawn from mandatory pay ratio disclosures between 2019 and 2024 - shows that although the gap briefly narrowed during the Covid-19 pandemic, overall pay disparities between chief executives and lower-paid employees have remained largely unchanged.

In 2023/24, the median CEO-to-median employee pay ratio across the FTSE 350 was 52:1, a marginal drop from 54:1 the previous year. When comparing CEO pay to the 25th percentile of UK employees, the median ratio was 71:1, down slightly from 75:1.

Disparities were even more pronounced among the FTSE 100, where the median CEO-to-median worker ratio stood at 78:1, and 106:1 for those at the lower quartile threshold.