CEO salaries – UK trends and statistics broken down

When you hear “CEO”, you might picture an Elon Musk-type barking orders, paying their employees a pittance, and awarding themselves the highest salary band for their effort.

From Logan Roy to Mr. Burns, we’re taught from an early age that CEOs, or Chief Executive Officers, are “fat cats” who prioritise their own pay over everyone else’s.

That image has only been reinforced in recent times, as stories of soaring CEO salaries in 2024 and 2025 made headlines, right as the cost of living crisis has seen many workers struggling to get by.

But while there are doubtless some bad actors, the full picture is more nuanced. Some CEOs skip salaries for years to reinvest in their businesses, or tie their earnings strictly to performance.

This guide will go beyond the caricature to examine how much today’s CEOs are paid, and how their incomes compare to the average worker.

Who are the highest-paid CEOs in the UK?

Median pay for CEOs at the UK’s 100 largest listed firms (known as the FTSE 100) was £4.79m in 2024, according to figures from Deloitte.

And while employee pay in the UK has been steadily increasing since 2022, as organisations try to keep pace with rising inflation, their paydays pale in comparison to the big bosses.

Those figures mean the average FTSE CEO in 2024 took home the median UK worker’s salary in just three days. Here’s a closer look at five of the highest-paid UK-based business execs last year, as reported by the High Pay Centre:

1. Denise Coates, CEO of Bet365, paid herself £221 million in 2023. While she is not a FTSE 100 CEO, we have to give a special mention to Coates, who has ranked as the highest-paid Chief Executive in the UK for several years. Coates has now earned £1.4 billion in four years – which is almost equal to the total GDP of the Caribbean twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

2. Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, earned £16.85 million in FY 2023-24. That’s around 230 times the amount received by a typical AstraZeneca worker.

3. Erik Engstrom, CEO of RELX, collected £13.64 million in FY 2023-24.

4. Tufan Erginbilgic , CEO of Rolls Royce, earned £13.61 million in FY 2023-24.

5. Charles Woodburn, CEO of BAE Systems, collected £13.45 million in FY 2023-24.

What is the average CEO salary in the UK?

According to the latest Office for National Statistics figures, annual gross pay (including bonuses) for Chief Executive roles is now £97,083 per year, on average.

Broken down, this means a UK CEO would earn £49.78 per hour, on average, over a standard 37.5-hour work week. This is a 307% increase on the National Living Wage of £12.21 per hour. Statistically, it puts Chief Executives in the top 1% of earners in the UK.

Take note that the ONS data shows a regional disparity when it comes to Chief Exec pay. On average, London CEOs receive a mean gross annual salary of £150,826, while CEOs in the South West (the lowest-paid area) can expect to take home £59,609 a year in comparison.

How much does a CEO earn compared to the average worker?

We know that the average gross salary for UK employees is £37,430, according to research by Forbes. Assuming CEOs earn £97,083 gross pay per year, they will earn approximately 2.6x the amount of the typical UK employee.

Naturally, this gap is wider in the biggest, most valuable UK companies. The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 act mandates that all publicly listed firms with more than 250 UK employees publish payroll software data for a CEO’s wage.

Specifically, reports should contain information on the ‘pay ratio’ in a company, comparing CEO remuneration with the rest of their workforce’s pay.

High Pay Centre analysis of this data shows that the median CEO salary was 78 times more than a typical UK employee in 2023/2024, a slight decline from the previous year. 18% of companies also paid their CEO over 100x more than the median employee.

How much more do startup CEOs earn?

The pay divide between CEOs and employees isn’t just limited to large corporations, as CEOs at startup companies often earn significantly more than their teams as well.

Research by HSBC UK revealed that startup founders are earning nearly 60% more than the average UK salary, which is £21,000 a year more than an employee. The average take-home salary was reported to be at £58,000 – around 57% above the national wage.

The CEO gender pay gap

They may be one of the most visible and experienced people in a company, but Chief Executives are still not immune to the gender pay gap.

In fact, the difference in earnings between men and women in CEO roles in 2023 was a considerable 5.25% (marginally below the national median pay gap of 9.1%). Men in this role earn an estimated £2.17 more per hour than women.

Why do women CEOs earn less than men?

The pay disparity is partly due to women being underrepresented amongst Chief Executives. According to research reported by The Guardian, the number of female CEOs in the FTSE 100 has fallen to fewer than 10. In total, their median pay amounted to £2.69m, compared to £4.19m for male CEOs.

Likely, this is caused by the motherhood penalty. The average age of a FTSE 100 CEO is 55 years old, indicating the level of experience required to reach a managing director level.

Research shows that working mothers are more likely to leave work or go part-time to care for children than fathers. Having essentially put their careers on ice, it is much harder for women to build up a CV that will qualify them for a CEO role.

Another path to becoming a CEO is to launch a company yourself. Here, women are also impeded by the gender funding gap. Female founders raise, on average, 7.7x less in early-stage capital than their male counterparts.

Types of compensation for CEOs

You might not guess it from the wealthy individuals we’ve spotlighted above, but most boards aim for “fair” remuneration for CEOs by matching compensation with business performance.

In this way, Chief Executives are encouraged to take risks and chase growth, as their decisions are directly linked to how much they’ll earn at the end of the month.

Here’s a quick rundown of five common types of compensation awarded to CEOs:

• Base salaries: the fixed salary a CEO receives, regardless of yearly performance.
• Bonuses: performance-based incentives, often tied to achieving specific goals. M&S CEO Stuart Machin receiving a £7.1m pay packet for how he handled the cyber attack by hacker group Scattered Spider is a prime example of this.
• Stocks: public or private shares where, if the value increases, the CEO will profit.
• Pension contributions: usually higher than for the rest of the workforce.
• Benefits: such as health insurance, gym memberships, or company cars.

As an example of how these different forms of compensation can influence income, let’s take a closer look at the salary awarded to Simon Roberts – CEO of Sainsbury’s – in June 2025. According to The Retail Gazette, his pay packet comprised of:

• Base salary: £1.06 million
• Bonus payments: £4.12 million
• Annual bonus (2024): £1.94 million
• Long-term incentives: £2.17 million
• Total package: around £5.8 million

What is a pay ratio?

A pay ratio is a simple way to compare how much one group earns compared to another. In this case, it’s most commonly used to show the difference between the pay of a company’s CEO and its average employee.

Pay ratios can help to show any pay inequalities within an organisation, which can raise serious questions about fairness, employee morale and company values. For example, a high CEO-to-employee pay ratio can raise potential issues with how a company distributes its success, especially if workers are facing stagnant wages, while executive pay continues to rise.

Which industries have the biggest pay ratio?

The latest High Pay Centre report reveals that the industries with the highest pay ratio are:

• Healthcare: 80:1 ratio
• Consumer Services: 72:1 ratio
• Consumer Directory: 69:1 ratio

Which companies have the biggest pay ratio?

The same report also listed UK companies with the highest CEO/median employee ratios for 2023/24. They are as follows:

With these figures in mind, it’s no surprise that certain corporations have hit the headlines for awarding eye-watering pay packages. For example, Tesco CEO Ken Murphy received a £9.23m pay packet for the company’s latest financial year. This comes just a few months after the supermarket giant announced it was cutting 400 jobs to help improve efficiency.

Meanwhile, Centrica owner Chris O’Shea faced a shareholder rebellion when it was revealed that his total pay packet (including bonuses and share-related pay) had increased to £4.3m last year – all while energy bill payers struggled with record levels of debt.

Is there a maximum pay ratio?

There currently isn’t a legal maximum pay ratio in the UK. However, the High Pay Centre has long called for a maximum to be introduced to combat rising CEO pay.

“In the longer term, it is time to seriously consider the prospect of a maximum wage expressed legally binding maximum CEO to employee as a pay ratio,” High Pay Centre stated in its report.

“A maximum ratio, which could achieve this pre-taxation, may prove more appealing, empowering and politically durable than sole reliance on taxes and transfers to redress inequalities.”

How much should a CEO earn in the UK?

At first glance, an annual gross income of £97,083 doesn’t sound like much for the standard CEO. On this wage, a Chief Exec would not even pay the highest additional UK tax rate (although they would need to pay the highest National Insurance rates).

Still, this number is likely skewed by the entrepreneurs who, rather than eat into company cash flow, choose to reinvest their salary into marketing, development, or hiring.

Once they hit the break-even point, founders can afford to start drawing from their company’s cash flow. But even then, deciding how to pay yourself as a business owner requires consideration about future objectives, tax requirements, and personal budget.

Determining CEO compensation is a collaborative effort between the CEO and the board. It’s about balancing future objectives with personal financial needs.

However, as the chasm between executive pay and average worker salaries continues to grow, calculations must consider the optics of reward versus reputation. A FTSE faux-pas, where CEOs feast and employees struggle, will quickly sour public perception.