Six Footsie chiefs share £32m payday: bumper bonuses for Unilever, Segro, Shell, Aviva, Rolls Royce and Flutter bosses
Six FTSE 100 bosses took home a total of £31.8 million last year despite the UK being gripped by a cost of living crisis.
Amid a spate of annual reports, the blue-chip companies, including Unilever, Segro, Shell, Aviva, Rolls-Royce and Flutter, released documents revealing what their CEOs were paid.
High wages for some of Britain’s top bosses will raise eyebrows as families across the country struggle to make ends meet as food and utility bills rise.
In the money: Ben van Beurden (pictured) received a £2.2 million fixed salary, a £2.6 million bonus and £4.9 million in shares during the year
Shell paid former boss Ben van Beurden £9.7 million in his last year after the oil and gas giant posted record profits driven by rising energy prices.
The 64-year-old stepped down at the end of 2022 and received a fixed salary of £2.2 million during the year, as well as a £2.6 million bonus and £4.9 million in share awards linked to the company’s long-term incentive plan .
It means Van Beurden raised more than £86 million during his nine years at the helm and will receive a further £700,000 this year for a six-month stay with Shell as an advisor.
Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Dove soap maker Unilever paid outgoing chef Alan Jope £4.8 million, a 10 per cent increase from a year earlier, despite coming under fire for the company’s poor performance. Last year’s bonanza brings his salary since he took over in January 2019 to £16.5 million.
Jope will be replaced in July and will leave the company with shares nearly flat since he took over.
Rolls-Royce’s former boss Warren East, who stepped down in December after seven-and-a-half years in charge, made £3.8 million before stepping down.
His latest payout took his earnings since becoming CEO of the aircraft engine maker to more than £20 million.
Elsewhere, warehouse giant Segro paid its CEO David Sleath £3.9m, a dip from last year when he brought in £4.7m.
Insurer Aviva paid boss Amanda Blanc £5.5 million, a jump from the £3 million she was paid a year earlier.
And gambling giant Flutter, owner of Paddy Power and Betfair, has cut boss Peter Jackson’s salary almost in half. Despite the fall, he still got £4.1 million last year.
Luke Hildyard of the High Pay Center said companies “should have thought twice” before handing out the huge pay packages amid the cost of living crisis.
He said: “Chief executives of multimillionaires making such huge windfalls amid a cost-of-living crisis, caused in part by a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, is such a clear sign of an economy undergoing major changes. need.’