The median FTSE 100 chief executive will have to work an extra two hours to earn the annual salary of the median UK worker—but the equivalent income was still achieved by around midday today.

The High Pay Centre’s calculation is based on the most recent pay disclosures and means the average FTSE 100 CEO will, by the middle of 6 January, have earned as much as it takes the average full-time UK worker to earn in a year.

Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre, took aim at the pay disparity.

“A feeling that the economy works for the enrichment of the tiny elite at the expense of wider society is an underrated cause of populist anger and support for extremist politics,” he said.

“Policymakers who fail to address this inequality are storing up some big problems for the future.”

At the moment, the High Pay Centre calculates that median FTSE 100 CEO pay stands at £4.22m, 113 times the median full-time worker’s pay of £37,430.

Reward in the UK

The pay figures come as the latest episode in a debate about remuneration which has seen City figures argue over the past year for bigger rewards of pay for top CEOs.

The argument, spearheaded by Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, is in part aimed at helping arrest the ongoing decline in stock market listings but the case is also made that it will help boost a flagging UK economy.

The debate was energised at the end of last year when billionaire financier Lord Spencer told the Financial Times that chief executives should be earning in line with “top rate footballers”.

The argument largely went the way of higher pay last year, with a sharp decline in the number of shareholder revolts on remuneration-related management resolutions.

That said, experts say it is “challenging” to identify a single reason for the drop in shareholder opposition. Though there are some possibilities: engagement may have improved; the pay argument may have won some support; and last year saw shareholders in the FTSE 100 earn the best returns for three years.

The new year is likely to be an uncertain one for pay levels. Investors have become more flexible and the argument that the UK needs to be more competitive through big rewards is likely to continue. However, there are pressures to keep pay levels down as the economy struggles to pick up steam. The issue is unlikely to be controversy-free.