CEO Pay Soars: UK Executive Compensation Smashes Record High
August 18, 2025
The median pay of FTSE 100 CEOs has reached a new all-time high, breaking the record for a third consecutive year, according to a new report from the High Pay Centre.
In 2024/25, the median FTSE 100 CEO pay stood at £4.6 million (U$6.2 million), up almost 7% from £4.3 million in 2023/24 according to the UK think tank’s findings. The number of FTSE 100 companies paying their CEOs £10 million or more also jumped from ten in 2023/24 to 13 in 2024/25.
The median CEO at a FTSE 100 firm is paid 122 times more the median UK full time worker, who earned £37,430 annually. As well as setting a new high for median CEO pay at FTSE 100 companies for a third year in a row, it also marked a four consecutive year of growth in CEO pay.
Mean FTSE 100 CEO pay also broke a new record, reaching £5.9 million in 2024/25, up from £5.1 million in 2023/24. Mean bonus payment additionally increased, with 93% of companies paying their CEO an annual bonus in 2024/25.
“These disparities matter, not just for optics, but because they shape trust in institutions, influence workforce morale and engagement, and affect public perceptions of business legitimacy,” the High Pay Centre report read. “In an era where millions of workers face financial pressures and public services are stretched, the optics of multi-million-pound executive rewards are especially stark.”
Minerva Analytics recently collaborated with the High Pay Centre’s on its Fair Reward Framework, a pioneering initiative designed to bring greater transparency to executive pay which was launched last September.
Minerva provided data to the framework, helping to deliver powerful insights into CEO pay and corporate governance. The framework was led by the Church of England Pensions Board, Brunel Pension Partnership, People’s Partnership, and Scottish Widows in collaboration with the High Pay Centre.
By establishing a new benchmark for evaluating corporate reward practices, the Fair Reward Framework equips investors, companies, trade unions, and the media with the tools to better understand and assess executive compensation. Minerva Analytics’ dedication to providing high-quality, independently verified data continues to drive fairness, accountability, and positive change across the corporate landscape. Minerva offers transparent, high-quality ESG and Renumeration data on more than 9,000 companies globally.
The High Pay Centre’s newly released report recorded the highest median CEO pay level since companies were required to disclose a ‘single figure’ for CEO pay using a calculation mandated by regulation in 2013.
The think tank has published an annual analysis of UK CEO pay since 2020. The think tank’s research covers the FTSE 100 cohort as at June 2025 and analyses the information published in their annual reports for their financial year ending between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025.
The High Pay Centre’s report argues that excessive spending on top earners by leading firms often comes at the expense of pay increases for the rest of the workforce. To address this, the organisation has made three policy recommendations to “help to ensure fairer, more proportionate and economically sensible levels of executive pay”.
These recommendations include fully implementing the Employee Rights Bill, as well as requiring large companies to reserve a proportion of board seats for directors elected by the workforce. The High Pay Centre said that the latter would “bring frontline perspectives into boardroom discussions and improve accountability on decisions relating to pay and corporate culture”.
The think tank has also urged a reform of corporate reporting on pay. The high pay centre welcomed the UK government’s commitment to conduct a review of corporate non-financial reporting, adding that annual reports currently “still often lack fundamental information on how workers at the company are paid”.
“Ongoing reforms of employment rights and corporate reporting and governance provide an opportunity to implement changes that can ensure the wealth accumulated by businesses is channelled in a way that enjoy greater public confidence and serves the wider national interest more effectively,” the report read, “In a period of economic uncertainty and social division, it is all the more vital that this opportunity is not missed.”
In 2024/25 the total expenditure of FTSE 100 companies on their executives’ pay package was £1bn for 217 executive roles. This represents an increase from £757 million in 2023/24. However, much of this increase reflects executive pay awards at was aerospace manufacturer Melrose Industries, where the executives were paid £212 million.
Melrose recorded by far the highest CEO pay in 2024/25, with total CEO pay of £58.9 million disclosed in the company’s annual report. This was 1,574 times the pay of the median UK full-time worker.
It was also significantly higher than the second and third highest CEO pay packages, £18.9 million at educational publishing and services provider Pearson and £14.7 at pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca respectively.
The median total spend on executive pay – including the CEOs and other executives – for FTSE 100 companies in 2024/25 was £6.7 million.
Separate research from the High Pay Centre published in June had found that the pay gap between the CEOs of FTSE 350 companies and workers had shown little change during the last five years.
While CEO and executive pay is a polarising issue in many quarters, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly mulling executive pay rules. As reported by Minerva Analytics, the SEC held a roundtable on executive compensation disclosure requirements in June.
This roundtable centred on whether the executive compensation disclosure framework could be “improved”, including disclosures of bankers’ pay and clawbacks of bonus pay. It sought the views of public companies, investors and other experts in the field.
Minerva Analytics delivers transparent, high-quality ESG and Renumeration data on 9,000+ global companies, empowering investors with actionable insights and custom stewardship solutions.
You can read more of our articles by clicking here.
Related
Last Updated: 18 August 2025