The gap between the median FTSE 100 CEO’s pay and that of the median UK worker is at its widest point for eight years, according to new research.

The High Pay Centre think tank says the ratio between FTSE 100 chief executive remuneration of the average worker now stand at 130:1—up from 124:1 last year.

Andrew Speke, interim director of the High Pay Centre, said the growth in the pay gap—it’s the fourth year in a row that it has grown—should stand as a “wake up call” to key figures “who’ve turned blind eye to rising CEO pay”.

The findings come at the same time as news that the High Pay Centre will be shut down, owing to a lack of funding.

“We hope that a change in Prime Minister, and a renewed focus on economic fairness, will lead to [the topics of] economic inequality and corporate excess returning to the political agenda,” Speke says.

“A failure to tackle such disproportionate and inefficient levels of inequality will only further reduce faith in our current economic model and help to accelerate the rise of right-wing populism.”

CEO pockets £17.7m

The High Pay Centre’s research shows that AstraZeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, received the highest pay of £17.69m. GSK’s Emma Walmsley received £15.58m.

Remuneration committees have been willing to make bigger pay settlements since the start of a campaign launched in 2023 by LSE chief executive Julia Hoggett, who argued UK competitiveness would be boosted by higher salaries.

In November last year, Hoggett noted in a speech that remuneration committees seemed willing to be on their investors’ “naughty step” in order to pay executives more. “If one of your children’s on the naughty step, it is a naughty step, but if all your children are on the naughty step, it is a play date,” she told a Financial Times conference.

However, though few pay deals have made recent headlines, pay remained a key issue for investors during the most recent proxy season.

Last month, Minerva , shareholder advisers, said 11.24% of remuneration policies and 5.85% of remuneration reports, at 186 AGMs, were hit by shareholders’ revolts (votes of 20% or more against).

Minerva said the figures suggested “investors were more willing to challenge forward-looking pay frameworks than retrospective outcomes”.

In April, Deloitte reported that median FTSE 100 annual pay had risen from £5.01m to £5.89m. Mitul Shah, partner in Deloitte’s remuneration practice, said hikes in pay been offered to “retain and attract” talent in an “increasingly competitive global market”.

Shah added that investors were “more willing” to hear companies make their case for higher salaries.

However, companies were warned that bumper wage packets would need a clear rationale. In a letter to the FT,  Bernadette Young, director of governance firm Indigo, said boards would “need to clearly justify any decisions to supersize executive pay with a coherent rationale to avoid a repeat of last year when shareholder revolts against pay deals among FTSE 100 companies doubled.”

The High Pay Centre may be closing its doors, but controversy over pay will remain.