by New Worker correspondent

…if you can get it. The High Pay Centre (HPC) declared the first Tuesday of the year to be Fat Cat Day, when the average FTSE 100 CEO earned the UK median worker’s full-time annual salary. This was the same as last year and is based on the most recent CEO pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports as of January 2026, compared with government statistics on pay levels across the UK economy.

The median FTSE 100 CEO collected an average of £4.4 million (excluding pension), no less than 113 times the median fulltime worker’s pay of £39,039. This represented a 4.22 per cent increase from the modest figure of £4.22 million in 2024.

This is better than the whole four days it would take partners in ‘Magic Circle’ law firms to earn the magic £39,039; material risk takers (whatever they are) at FTSE 100 banks need 10 days and partners at the Big Four accountancy firms toil relentlessly for a tedious 12 days. Overall, the top one per cent of earners need 54 days of ‘work’.

No-one can hold a candle to Peter Dilmot, CEO of aviation firm Melrose, who only needed to work until the mid-morning tea-break on the first day back at work to pass the milestone. His salary is £45.5 million, which suggests his career move from being an army helicopter pilot was a wise one.

Bankers are not far behind however. The NatWest CEO received £6.6 million in 2025 while the Lloyds Banking Group CEO collects £7.4 million for closing uneconomic branches, but he could be in line for £17.7 million this year if the share price rises. Both must be jealous of the Barclays boss on £15 million. The ending of caps on bankers’ bonuses helps a lot. Unite, which incorporates the former Banking. Insurance and Finance Union, seems to be silent about such matters.

HPC assume CEOs work 62.5 hours per week which, excluding weekends and bank holidays, means an hourly pay of £1,353.23 per hour on the basis of £4.398 million average CEO pay. While 62.5 hours might sound gruelling much of this involves power breakfasts, followed by
a working lunch before a lavish dinner, all on expenses.

The Centre is not a Bolshevik organisation – instead, it worries that such inequalities might
result in the peasantry reaching for their pitchforks and pleads that businesses should be more
“responsible”. As with the TUC, it welcomes Starmer’s Employment Rights Act on the grounds
that “it is promising to see the bill will grant trade unions reasonable access to workplaces to speak to workers and require employers to inform new employees of their right to join a union” as it notes the weakening of trade unions has seen the growth of such massive pay gaps.

Rather than call for a peasants’ revolt, it has launched a petition to call for a ‘Fat Cat Tax’ on
companies paying bosses vastly more than their workers. It wants to see a corporation tax surcharge on yearly profits if remuneration for an executive director exceeds a particular multiple of the median UK worker’s salary, starting at a modest levy for a pay ratio of 10:1 rising progressively to the highest rate for ratios of 500:1 plus.