By Charlie Conchie
The UK needs to “get over” its fixation with bosses’ pay packets if it is to start tempting in top businesses, a London Stock Exchange executive has warned, after a new survey claimed FTSE 100 chiefs made the average Brits’ salary in one morning.
Neil Shah, the exchange’s tech industry director, said the UK’s fixation with criticising executive salaries was hampering the appeal of the UK for business and dissuading firms from listing in London.
“If the UK wants world leading companies in the FTSE 100, it needs to get over what CEOs are paid,” Shah wrote on Linkedin.
“Lets enable the best companies to thrive and stay in the UK by creating hospitable conditions and learn from not just [Silicon Valley] and [New York] but Austin, Miami, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Mumbai and Bengaluru,” he added.
Shah’s comments come after a report from the High Pay Centre, which campaigns against hefty salaries in business, claimed that chiefs of the UK’s biggest 100 firms make more than the average £34,963 median wage by 1pm every day.
The criticism of the report points to a debate gripping the Square Mile over whether Britain needs to become more comfortable with hefty payouts in order to bring in top talent.
Last year, London Stock Exchange boss Julia Hoggett claimed the UK needed a frank conversation on executive pay in order for firms to stay and grow in the UK rather than chase bigger pay packets in the US.
Bosses in the US are able to rake in far bigger paypackets for leading the country’s largest firms. A report from Equilar and Deloitte last year found that the median pay package, including salary, bonus and stocks for S&P 500 firm chiefs surged 34 per cent since 2015 to the end of 2021, while London’s FTSE 100 CEOs have taken a pay cut of 13 per cent.
However, so-called proxy agencies, which advise shareholders on how to vote on company policies, are criticised by city figures for blocking bumper UK paypackets while waving them through across the Atlantic.
Unilever, Barclays and Rolls-Royce are among the firms to fall foul of the debate in recent years as shareholders voted against big paypackets for executives.
The High Pay Centre has claimed previously that “very high executive pay is a big part of the cost of living problem” and incomes should be spread across the population.
