Bosses at Britain's biggest companies saw their pay rise by almost 16% on average last year.

The High Pay Centre said the median pay of a FTSE 100 chief executive was £3.91million in 2022, up from £3.38million in 2021.

And it said the average earnings of a FTSE 100 boss was 118 times more than a typical UK worker on £33,000 a year.

The BBC says critics called the earnings extreme, but some of the firms argued they were in line - or even below - global competitors.

According to the High Pay Centre's research, the highest-paid chief executive last year was Sir Pascal Soriot, the boss of the drugs giant AstraZeneca, with £15.3million.

The British-Swedish company became a household name when it teamed up with Oxford University scientists to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.

Highest female earner

Charles Woodburn of security and aerospace firm BAE Systems was the second-highest earner with £10.7million, while Emma Walmsley, boss of GlaxoSmithKline, was the highest female earner with £8.45million.

Ben van Beurden, the former boss of energy giant Shell with £9.7million, and BP's Bernard Looney, who got £10.03million, also featured among the top earners.

The think tank, which analysed the pay of chief executives of all companies on the UK's blue chip company index through firms' annual reports for 2022, reported median pay was more than £500,000 up on 2021, continuing its upward trend since it dropped to £2.46million in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

The High Pay Centre said the rise was in part due to the economic recovery following lockdowns and through bosses having "strong incentive pay awards tied to profitability and share prices".

However, median earnings are still not as high as they were in 2017 when they hit £3.97million.

The independent group, which focuses on economic inequality and fairer pay, said the gap between company executives and other workers' pay had widened further last year.

'Land of grotesque extremes'

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the report showed Britain was a "land of grotesque extremes".

"We need an economy that delivers better living standards for all - not just those at the top," said Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC.

But economic think tank the Adam Smith Institute said "knee-jerk attacks" on chief executive pay were unhelpful, and said more attention needed to be applied to the benefits for the wider economy.

In response to the report, AstraZeneca said 12% of Sir Pascal's pay was fixed, while 88% of it was subject to share price and performance. The firm's share price has soared 81% in the past five years.

The company also pointed out that, on a global basis, its chief executive pay was below big pharmaceutical competitors.

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