As CEOs proceed to digest the fallout of the homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Johnson, a billionaire backer of main firms believes a pay rise is required to draw them to the job.
Lord Michael Spencer, the billionaire British financier, is pissed off by his perception that CEOs within the U.Ok. need to be paid in the identical ballpark because the Premier League’s greatest stars like Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.
“We don’t mind paying our footballers, top-rate footballers, extraordinary amounts of money,” Spencer instructed the FT.
“Somehow that’s considered perfectly acceptable. But if the CEO of BP or HSBC earns £20 million a year, materially less than their peer group in America, everyone jumps up and down saying this is an outrage.”
He added: “The U.S. celebrates the fact that great chief executives earn large amounts of money. They want their chief executives to be paid like football stars.”
Spencer’s argument is just like one made by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary in April, who used footballer pay to justify his potential €100 million bonus.
The issue with Spencer’s feedback? CEOs successfully are already paid like footballers within the U.Ok.
Multi-millionaire CEOs are already the norm
The typical FTSE 100 CEO earned £4.2 million in 2023, whereas FT evaluation exhibits the typical Premier League wage was £1.98 million in the identical yr.
Spencer was extra possible suggesting that CEOs ought to be paid at ranges just like these of the best paid within the Premier League. However even right here, the figures are comparable.
Manchester Metropolis’s Kevin De Bruyne is considered the highest-paid participant, incomes a wage of about £400,000 per week, or £20.8 million a yr. With playing-related bonuses and sponsorship offers, his earnings is probably going thousands and thousands greater.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot earned £16.85 million in 2023, making him the FTSE 100’s highest-paid boss. In second place was RELX’s Erik Engstrom with a £13.64 million package deal, whereas Rolls Royce’s Terfan Erginbilic earned £13.61 million.
U.Ok. bosses have confronted steep resistance from traders to pay rises lately. AstraZeneca’s Soriot noticed 38.5% of shareholders reject plans for a £1.8 million pay improve in April.
Rajiv Jain, chief funding officer at prime 20 shareholder GQG Companions, mentioned Soriot was “massively underpaid” compared with U.S. pharmaceutical CEOs.
Shareholders have been cautious to approve bumper pay rises in an period of traditionally excessive inflation that has hit these much less nicely off the toughest.
However, proponents of pay rises say they’re required to stop a flight of firms and expertise from the U.Ok. A number of U.Ok. firms have chosen to maneuver their listings to the U.S. this yr seeking higher market valuations.
C-Suite within the highlight
Spencer’s feedback come at a time of deep unrest within the C-Suite.
The homicide of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson final week has introduced into the highlight govt security at main firms.
UnitedHealthcare and different insurance coverage firms, Elevance Well being and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Protect, eliminated board management bios in an obvious effort to guard their privateness amid heightened security considerations.
Fortune’s Management editor Ruth Umoh and reporter Natalie McCormick wrote of a rising pattern of trepidation amongst execs to make the transfer to the nook workplace, one which might be accelerated by Johnson’s loss of life.
These hoping to reverse that pattern argue that greater pay could be the option to go.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
