Top UK bosses see their pay packets rise by 10 per cent to over £5m

​An annual survey by the High Pay Centre reveals that the average FTSE 100 CEO earned £5.48m in 2015, up from £4.96m in 2014.

​The High Pay Centre said: “As the new prime minister has indicated, the growing gap between rewards for those at the top and everyone else is hard to justify at a time when economic uncertainty is intense and corporate performance mixed.”

Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said​: “There is apparently no end yet in sight to the rise and rise of FTSE 100 CEO pay packages.​ ​In spite of the occasional flurry from more active shareholders, boards continue to award ever larger amounts of pay to their most senior executives.

“The High Pay Centre was delighted by Theresa May’s recent intervention on this issue. There now seems to be political will and momentum behind attempts to reform top pay.

​​“In particular we support two of her main proposals: that companies should be obliged to publish the ratio between the pay of the CEO and the average worker in the business, and that the voice of the ordinary employee must be heard in discussions over executive pay.”

Peter Cheese, ​c​hief ​e​xecutive at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said:​ ​“There is still a shocking disconnect between pay for those at the top and the rest of the workforce in large companies. Worse still, this gap is continuing to grow despite our latest data showing that it leads to a real sense of unfairness that has a clear impact on employee motivation.​”