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Are CEOs overpaid?

Chris Holbrook Find Out Now Market Research

Chris Holbrook

17th Jun, 2022 | 4 mins read

Sainsbury boss pay of £3.8m is “much too high” 

A new nationally representative survey of 2,024 GB Adults from Find Out Now finds: 

  • Public think average CEO pay should be 14 times less than it is
  • Average estimate of Sainsbury’s CEO pay is 65% under
  • 93% say £3.8 milllion is too high 

 
How many times their average employee salary a top British company’s CEO should be paid?

Less than 5 times: 63%
5-9 times: 19%
10-19 times: 12%
20 times or more: 6%

Average: 6 times more.

According to the Financial Times, the average difference in the UK is 86 times more. That’s 14 times higher. Full results here

How much, to the nearest £100,000, do you think the CEO of Sainsbury’s is paid? 

Less than £1 million: 45%
£1 million – £2 million:30%
£2 million – £4 million: 17%
£4 million or more: 8%

Average: £1.5 million. Full results here

The CEO of Sainsbury’s is actually paid £3.8m annually. In your opinion is this too high or low?

Much too high:  76%
Somewhat high: 17%
About right: 5%
Somewhat low: 1%
Much too low: 1%

93% of people think Sainsbury’s CEO is paid too much. Full results here

Chris Holbrook, Founder of Find Out Now says “With the cost of living crisis biting, our survey shows the huge gap between what CEOs get paid and what the public thinks they are worth. It will be interesting to see if the City starts voting against huge pay packets for top executives.”

About the survey

Find Out Now polled 2,250 GB adults online on 15th June 2022. Results are based on a nationally representative sub-sample of 2,042 within ±3% of ONS quotas for age, gender, socio-economic group, and region.     

Find Out Now are members of the British Polling Council and Market Research Society abide by their rules.

Photo: Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons