UPDATE - Top UK CEOs Wages Grew 6 Times Faster Than Average Workers Earnings In 2017 - Study

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2018) Wages of the CEOs of the 100 largest companies in the United Kingdom rose by 11 percent in the year-ending 2017, which is six times faster than the growth of salaries of average workers, a study issued on Wednesday said.

"New research from the High Pay Centre and the CIPD finds that median pay for a FTSE 100 CEO leapt 11% in 2017," the survey of the High Pay Centre and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said, adding that the increase in workers salaries amounted to some 2 percent.

According to the study, the ratio between the salaries of CEOs and those of their employees was 145:1 in 2017.

"The mean pay ratio between FTSE 100 CEOs and the mean pay package of their employees is 145:1, which is higher than last year (128:1 in 2016, 146:1 in 2015)," the survey said.

The study said that there were only seven female CEOs among the 100, and that their salaries were twice smaller than those of their male peers.

The authors of the survey recommended UK companies to make greater efforts to challenge disproportionate earnings.

Unite the Union, biggest UK trade union, pointed out that the figures presented in the survey showed that the inequality in the state was one of the highest among the developed countries.

"Research into FTSE 100 chief executives pay packages by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the High Pay Centre is a stark reminder that the UK is one of the most unequal developed nations on the planet," the trade union said in a statement.

Unite the Union General Secretary Len McCluskey pointed out that the UK government had to tackle the issue.

"[Prime Minister] Theresa May has to get a grip. The fat cats are taking all the cream while Britain's workers work harder and earn less. We need tough action to rein in fat cat pay and a strengthening of trade union rights to organize and bargain for better wages on behalf of workers ... If Britains boardrooms want workers to help make them profits, it is high time they paid them fairly and started acting responsibly. If they wont, then the governments duty is to force them to do so," McCluskey said.

The current economic growth forecasts for and budget policies of the United Kingdom meant that the 2012-2022 decade will be the worst in terms of real earnings growth in over 200 years, the Resolution Foundation think tank said in its analysis of the budget statement earlier in August.

The economic situation in the United Kingdom is also witnessing a period of turbulence over uncertainty around the countrys withdrawal from the European Union.