Some CEOs earn as much as an average worker's yearly salary by the third working day of 2025, study shows

It is no secret that the CEOs of million and billion-dollar companies earn much more than the average worker. However, a recent study has highlighted how stark the difference is. The study showed that the CEOs of FTSE 100 companies have earned as much money as the median annual income of an average worker by the third working day of the year. According to the HighPay Centre, CEOs of some companies would have made that much money by 11:30 AM on Monday, January 6.

The median yearly salary in the UK is £37,430 ($45,581.32) and it took many CEOs about 29 hours to make that amount. The research was conducted to highlight the pay disparity in the country. The hourly pay earned by the CEOs is £1,298.46 ($1580.62) amounting to £22 ($26.78) per minute, as per Indy100. The calculations are based on HPC's analysis of the most recent CEO pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports, the government's statistics, and worker's pay in the economy across the country. According to HPC, "As with last year, the executive pay data suggests that CEOs will have to work less than three days of 2025 to surpass the annual pay of the median worker."

The median FTSE 100 CEO pay excluding the pension stands at £4.22 million ($5.15 million). It is 113 times as much as the average worker in the country. The CEO pay levels have increased by 2.5 percent while a worker's pay increased by around 7 percent. In October last year, the government introduced an Employment Rights Bill that gave trade unions reasonable access to employees and to speak to them. Current employees were also supposed to inform new employees of the organization about the existence of the union and their right to join it. The decline in trade union membership is considered a reason behind the increasing pay gap, as per the report.

The increase in pay gaps and inequality have been increasing in the UK and other Western countries since the 1980s as per the research. "Every working person plays a part in producing Britain’s wealth. But while millions of low-paid workers are still feeling the effects of the cost of living crisis, people at the top are taking more than their fair share," Paul Nowak, general secretary of the union group Trades Union Congress remarked as per indy100. "A feeling that the economy works for the enrichment of a tiny elite at the expense of wider society is an underrated cause of populist anger and support for extremist politics," Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Centre continued. "Policymakers who fail to address this inequality are storing up some big problems for the future."

HPC’s Charter for Fair Pay, published last year called for a more effective implementation of the Employment Rights Bill as well as called for more measures to help workers get more voice in the running of the company. The Charter for Fair Pay includes several policies to empower workers, enable a more participatory business culture, boost pay and productivity as well as reduce the income inequality between different levels of professionals.