Over 500 UK executives received at least £1 million in pay in 2014/15, according to an analysis of published remuneration reports by the Labour Research Department. Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of advertising/PR group WPP heads the table with total remuneration of £42,978,000, 44% up on the previous year, the analysis reports. This total includes the £274,000 cost of flights for Sir Martin’s wife to accompany him on business trips.
According to LRD, the total remuneration of the 536 executives with pay in excess of £1 million came to £1.56 billion. Just over 50 executives received packages in 2014/15 that were at least 100% higher than those they received in the previous year.
LRD said:
‘The median (or midpoint) remuneration package was £2.04 million against £2.03 million in last year’s survey. In the 2015 survey, year-on-year comparisons could be made for 438 executives, and the median rise in their packages was 8.1%, down on the 9.2% median rise in last year’s survey. However, in the latest survey period, official figures show the rise in weekly earnings for the whole economy has ranged from 1.1% to 3.1% for September 2014 onwards. So the gap between the boardroom and workforce has widened by a considerable margin. Looking at the individual rises, 52 executives were awarded remuneration packages that were at least 100% bigger than the previous year. Where comparisons could be made, 260 out of the 438 saw their remuneration packages grow over the past two financial years.’