The bosses of companies in the FTSE-100 index are taking home 100 times more than the average worker, new research has revealed.
A report by the Income Data Services report found that the salaries of top executives have doubled in the past five years, soaring to a record of £3.2m, as a result of increasing incentive payments.
IDS said the average FTSE-100 chief executive took home £737,000 but total earnings reached £3,174,000 after incentives and share options were added.
The average earnings of full-time workers increased by only £5,000 to just over £30,000, the report found.
Brendan Barber, general secretary at the TUC, said: “Britain’s top directors clearly have no shame. Year in, year out they have been paying themselves far bigger rises than they are prepared to pay their staff while lecturing the rest of us on the need for low taxes. It beggars belief that they are somehow working twice as hard as five years ago.
“This is not just morally offensive greed, it is bad for the rest of society too. The growth of a new class of the super-rich, semi-detached from the rest of society, hits social cohesion, feeds into house price inflation and harms staff loyalty and commitment,” he added.
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