There was a sharp intake of breath last month when the pharmaceuticals group AstraZeneca cemented chief executive Pascal Soriot’s position as the best-paid FTSE 100 boss with a £17m pay package, up from £15.3m a year earlier. The latest award brings to £137m the amount he has earned since joining in 2012.
While it drew the anger of corporate governance experts, Soriot’s generous payout was just a fraction of the sums his counterparts at the biggest US companies take home. Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, stands as the highest-earning boss on the US-based S&P 500, with a $226m pay packet in 2022.
That gulf has fuelled fears over London’s ability to attract and retain global talent, and been used to strengthen boardroom calls to boost executive pay to compete with Wall Street-level salaries.
Concern in the City follows a string of defections in recent years. Top bosses have crossed the Atlantic to go to…
