Trends In Base Salary in FTSE 100 companies between 2018 and 2021.

March 2020 marked the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which led to lockdowns in many countries and caused mass disruption amongst many businesses. But how exactly was the UK’s FTSE 100 affected, and how have 2021 CEO remuneration packages fared compared to previous years?

As can be seen in the graph below, there was a slight decrease in the median and lower quartile base salaries between 2018 and 2020, with the median falling from £914k to £887k, and lower quartile from £775k to £758k. According to the September 2020 Willis Towers Watson (WTW) executive remuneration report ‘Executive remuneration in FTSE 100 companies’, this decrease was caused by changing constituents in the FTSE 100, and 38% of companies applying a 0% increase to CEO salaries.

The graph below shows a 1.4% decrease in the median base salary for FTSE 100 CEOs for the year ending September 2021. This was driven by the COVID-19 pandemic which caused major problems for companies globally, FTSE 100 inclusive. As a result, 61% of FTSE 100 CEOs didn’t receive salary increases in the year, as many companies froze salaries in response to the pandemic.

Between 2020 and 2021, the top 30 FTSE 100 companies saw almost 4% of CEOs receive a salary increase greater than 5%, with only around 2% of the bottom awarding the same increase. Around 68% of CEOs who were awarded a salary increase, received between 1-3%, which is generally considered to be in line with the wider workforce.

*The 12-month CPIH inflation rate in August 2021 was 3%

For more information, please contact George Edwards.

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