The growing pay gap between workers and their bosses has been laid bare by new analysis from Britain’s GMB trade union published to mark 20 years since the introduction of the minimum wage.
The union found that if the national minimum wage had kept pace with the average pay of FTSE 100 chief executives over the past two decades, it would now stand at £12.74 an hour, £5.24 higher than it really is.
The High Pay Centre has calculated that the average pay of a FTSE 100 boss is now £4.35m a year – compared with £1.23m at the introduction of the minimum wage, an increase of 354%.
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This year’s Fat Cat Day, the day when the average FTSE 100 chief executive will have already earned more than an average UK worker’s annual salary, will take place on 4 January, earlier than last year.
Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: “It is striking that the national minimum wage came in just as executive pay really started to spiral up and out of control.” GMB General Secretary Tim Roache called for a minimum wage of at least £10 an hour, a position backed by Labour.