Shock Pay Statistic On 'Fat Cat Wednesday'

A campaign group suggests top executives who returned to work on Monday had earned more money by mid-morning on Wednesday than the average worker does in a year.

The High Pay Centre has dubbed January 8 "fat cat Wednesday", based on average remuneration figures for FTSE 100 bosses compared with the wider average UK worker.

It found chief executives of firms in the FTSE 100 were paid an average of almost £4.3m in 2012, equivalent to an hourly wage of well over £1,000, compared with the country's average annual wage of £26,000.

The study said executive pay increased by 74% over the past decade, while wages for ordinary workers remained flat.

High Pay Centre director Deborah Hargreaves said: "Fat cat Wednesday highlights how insensitive big company executives have become.

"When top bosses take home more in two-and-a-half days than the average worker earns in a year, there is clearly something wrong with the way pay is set for both bosses and workers."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady added: "Soaring pay inequality, with top bosses now taking home more in a few days than most workers earn in a year, is damaging our economy.

"Workers need better pay rises so that the recovery is built on growing incomes, rather than falling savings and mounting household debts. But Britain's fat cat bosses are hoarding earnings owed to staff for shareholders and themselves.

"That's why we need workers on remuneration committees to knock some sense into top bosses' pay."

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