Bosses at Britain’s biggest companies will have earned more this year by lunchtime today than a typical worker will over the whole of 2026.
On what has been dubbed ‘Fat Cat Tuesday’, the average FTSE 100 chief executive will have already been paid the average full-time worker’s yearly salary of £39,039, the High Pay Centre think tank has calculated.
Top bosses typically earn £4.4million a year – 113 times the amount an average worker does.
The findings come after the number of shareholder rebellions at FTSE 100 firms over bosses’ pay deals rose from eight to 15 in 2025.
Andrew Speke, of the High Pay Centre, said the figures ‘once again emphasise the huge gulf in how the work of most people is valued compared to a small number of feted executives’.
Paul Nowak, the general secretary of the TUC, said the country needed ‘a dose of common sense when it comes to corporate excess. The Government must act to rein in boardroom greed, including by guaranteeing workers a seat on executive pay committees.’
Top earners: By midday Tuesday – dubbed ‘Fat Cat Tuesday’ – the average FTSE 100 chief executive will have been paid close to £40,000 for 2026 so far
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