This ridiculous chart shows why top bosses have earned more than your entire salary already this year

On Thursday, the year was just five days old. Yet that five days was all it took for the UK’s big cheese bosses to earn more than the average worker does in an entire year.

As of 2pm, 110 hours into 2023, the “average” FTSE 100 CEO had already earned £33,000, setting them well on their way towards their median salary of nearly £3.5m.

The figures were calculated by the High Pay Centre, a think tank which campaigns against economic inequality with a focus on fat cats.

Luke Hildyard, its director, said the figures demonstrate how the wealth which is created by all workers is being "captured" by a tiny few at the top.

How much do CEOs earn compared to the average worker?

Median pay for FTSE 100 CEOs – that is the leaders of the 100 biggest companies by market capitalisation on the London Stock Exchange – currently stands at £3.41m, which is 103 times more than the median full-time worker’s pay of £33,000.

Yahoo News UK has tried to produce a graphic that accurately depicts the enormous disparity between what those at the top earn compared to those at the bottom...

But to be honest, the chart above doesn't work very well – the tiny sliver of red doesn't really help anyone understand the size of the difference.

So we instead produced a circle chart, which works better in emphasising the sheer disparity between the two...

The next chart, below, is the perhaps an even clearer demonstration of the enormous gulf. Each pound sign represents £5,000. The average worker gets that about seven-and-a-half times... while the average FTSE 100 CEO earns that 682 times.

The numbers are even more astonishing when you compare CEO pay to a person earning the living wage, which as of April will be £10.42 an hour for everyone 23 and over. So anyone who works 40 hours a week for a year will earn £21,673.60. Here's how that compares.

Hildyard, reflecting on the figures amid the cost of living crisis, said: "In the worst economic circumstances that most people can remember, it is difficult to believe that a handful of top earners are still raking in such extraordinary amounts of money.

"The UK economy really cannot afford for such a big share of the wealth that is created by all workers to be captured by such a tiny number of people at the top. To address declining living standards for the majority, we need measures to balance the distribution of incomes more evenly."