Pay packages of FTSE 100 CEOs continue to grow at double-digit rate, High Pay Centre says

The pay packages of FTSE 100 chief executives continue to grow at double digits, the High Pay Centre has revealed. The 2015 average pay package of the CEOs stood at £5.48m. This was up from the £4.96m (€5.86m; $6.52m) average in 2014.

The independent UK think tank said that this increase in pay came at a time of restraint for other employees in the company. It also follows a warning by UK Prime Minister Theresa May in July. "There is an irrational, unhealthy and growing gap between what these companies pay their workers and what they pay their bosses," she had then said.

High Pay Centre said that the average pay ratio between FTSE 100 CEOs and the average total pay of their employees in 2015 was 129:1.

In contrast to these generous CEO pay packages, only a quarter of the FTSE 100 companies were accredited by the Living Wage Foundation for paying the living wage to all their UK-based employees.

None of these FTSE 100 companies were currently found to be publishing its CEO-to-employee pay ratio.

Other highlights made by the think tank were that there was not a single woman in the list of top 10 highest paid CEOs in both 2014 and 2015. Moreover, a tenth of the FTSE 100 companies were found to not have any female executive directors at all.

The think tank also said many of the FTSE 100 companies failed to disclose their total UK employee count in their annual reports. It said out of a sample of 72 companies, only 22 had disclosed this number.

The report also listed the top 10 highest paid CEOs in the UK for 2014 and 2015. The list is as follows-

Commenting on the report, Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, said: "There is apparently no end yet in sight to the rise and rise of FTSE100 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."