Safestore, most unequal firm now less unequal

Safestore, the most unequal company in the stock market, backs down over plans to give bosses a double-digit salary increase

The most unequal company on the stock market has backed down over plans to give its bosses a double-digit pay raise.

Safestore, which operates self-storage facilities, has the largest pay gap between the CEO and regular staff of any listed company, according to the High Pay Center think tank.

Uneven: Safestore, which operates self-storage facilities, has the largest pay gap between the CEO and regular staff of any listed company

Last year, boss Frederic Vecchioli took home £8.4 million – 313 times more than his workers’ average wages.

But the board still thought his base salary of £482,000 was ‘conservative’ and ‘not sufficiently motivating’ compared to colleagues – so they proposed an increase of at least 10 per cent.

Shareholders objected and after lengthy talks, Safestore has agreed to a six percent increase – less than the increase given to the rest of the workforce.

The typical CEO of a FTSE 100 company is paid more than 100 times what its employees earn on average.