CEOs richer than ever

SOYMB will not weary at exposing the inequities of capitalism.

Inequality grows as UK pay gap for bosses and workers is higher than ever. The pay gap between chief executives and their employees is at record levels – and getting wider – according to the High Pay Centre.

The typical FTSE 100 chief executive was paid £4.7m in 2013, according to pay consultancy Manifest/MM&K, an increase from £4.1m the year before. The typical FTSE 100 employee earned around £33,000. When measured against the average UK annual earnings, which stood at £27,000 last year according to government data, the comparison is even more stark – the top 100 executives earn 174 times more.

The pay gap is widest at Rangold Resources, where boss Mark Bristow was paid £4.4m last year, nearly 1,500 times that of his average employee, many of whom work in the company's African mines. The study, published today by the High Pay Centre, also singles out marketing giant WPP and the retailer Next, both companies with large British workforces.

WPP founder, Sir Martin Sorrell, received nearly £30m last year, 780 times the £38,000 earned by his average worker. At Next, Lord Wolfson received £4.6m, while his staff, most of whom work on the shop floor, typically took home £10,000 – about 459 times less than their boss. The disparity at Next would have been greater had Wolfson not chosen to waive a £3.8m bonus and share the sum among the company's 20,000 staff.

At Compass Group, which employs many cooks, cleaners and security officers, the average £13,000 annual salary is among the lowest in the FTSE 100 index of Britain's biggest listed companies. But chief executive Richard Cousins took home £5.5m last year – 418 times more than his workers.

"When bosses make hundreds of times as much money as the rest of the workforce, it creates a deep sense of unfairness," said High Pay Centre director, Deborah Hargreaves. "Britain's executives haven't got so much better over the past two decades. The only reason why their pay has increased so rapidly compared to their employees is that they are able to get away with it.