When £17m isn’t enough: FTSE firms plead to pay bosses millions more

Confronted by the huge salaries on offer in the US, London boardrooms are lobbying to be allowed to make their own bosses even wealthier

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.