Clik here to view.
Directors at FTSE 100 companies continue to see a rise in their salaries despite a fall in their share price.
The Total Remuneration Survey 2010, conducted by pay consultancy MM&K and the proxy voting agency Manifest, shows chief execs at the UK’s top 100 listed companies have seen their pay rise 5% since 2008 – to an average £3.1 million.
The increase comes in spite of a fall in key performance targets – such as a 1% fall in earnings per share over the same period.
The survey comes as companies face backlash from their investors over the size of their remuneration packages.
Last week, supermarket giant Tesco saw almost half of its shareholders either vote against its boardroom pay policy or abstained.
Retailing giant Marks and Spencer (M&S) is scheduled to hold its annual meeting next week and could face a similar reaction.
Marks and Spencer‘s new chief executive Marc Bolland is to receive almost £8.5 million in salary and compensation awards, while outgoing boss Sir Stuart Rose will be awarded £2.8 million.
The report comments: “At a recent meeting with a large institutional investor, we were told that companies were coming to them and asking that executives be rewarded for the hard efforts they had made in the recent very difficult times.
“Investors have not been very receptive to such requests, preferring that executives are rewarded for outputs (results) rather than inputs (effort),” it added.
Cliff Weight, director of MM&K, added: “If committees want to avoid criticism at the AGM and look shareholders in the eye, they’ve got to change and be more diligent and challenging.”
In 2008, the highest paid executive was 53-year-old Bart Becht, the chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser. He was rewarded with more than £36 million in pay, bonuses and share incentive schemes.
