Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsExecutive payPay & benefitsPay structures

Survey reveals public desire for CEO pay restraint

by Ashleigh Webber 4 May 2022
by Ashleigh Webber 4 May 2022 Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Six in 10 people think top UK company CEOs should be paid no more than 10 times the salary of their typical employee, a think tank has found.

The High Pay Centre found strong disapproval of current pay ratios and appetite for CEO pay restraint. The median pay ratio between a FTSE 350 CEO and their average full-time employee was 53:1 in 2020, with 21% of companies paying their CEO more than 100 times their median employee.

Asked how much they thought the CEOs of the UK’s biggest businesses should be paid compared to their lower- and mid-level employees, 62% said no more than 10 times would be appropriate.

Twenty-nine per cent felt between one and five times would be acceptable. Just 3% felt they should be paid over 50 times their average employee.

Almost half (48%) felt businesses behaved in ways that were generaly harmful of society. Asked why they felt this, 71% cited tax evasion or avoidance, 67% said poor pay and conditions for employees, and 63% said because of the proportion of profits or income taken by executives and investors.

Fifty-three per cent said policies that share wealth more evenly would be much more likely than those aimed at lifting economic growth (34%) to raise incomes and living standards for middle and bottom earners. Forty-nine per cent felt that living standards were determined by the way resources are distributed rather than the headline growth rate (34%).

CEO pay restraint

Firms with female directors most likely to cut pandemic executive pay

Executive pay: financial incentives damage long-term profits

The High Pay Centre said: “In practice, it has historically been a mixture of growth, through innovations and advancement in technology or medicine for example, and measures such as trade unions, progressive taxation and minimum wages ensuring that the proceeds of growth are shared fairly, that have raised living standards. It is also perfectly feasible for measures designed to share incomes and wealth more evenly to also result in greater economic growth.

“But it is very hard to imagine any mainstream politician or commentator dedicating to fairer wealth redistribution anything like the energy that they expend in search of greater economic growth.”

Reward, compensation and benefits opportunities


Browse all comp and benefits jobs

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport magazines, touching on some of the employment and wellbeing issues experienced by those in road haulage.

previous post
BrewDog boss offers staff a fifth of his equity stake
next post
Severe Covid cognitive impairment ‘equivalent to 20 years of ageing’

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

PwC partners in line for more than £1m...

8 Jul 2022

Pay gap between CEOs and employees set to...

23 May 2022

Firms with female directors most likely to cut...

19 Apr 2022

Huge pay gap for female FTSE 350 financial...

28 Feb 2022

Senior executives: towards a new world of work?

15 Feb 2022

Report: Prioritise workers’ pensions, not shareholder returns

10 Jan 2022

Top CEOs’ UK pay overtook average workers’ salary...

7 Jan 2022

Employee anger at John Lewis over payments to...

23 Sep 2021

Female FTSE 100 directors earn 73% less than...

23 Aug 2021

Highest paid CEOs earned 86 times median wage...

19 Aug 2021
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+