Wednesday 22 August 2012

Exec Pay in the UK

How UK pay works

As an early step it is probably a good idea to explain how pay works in the UK.  When I say ‘pay’ I am referring to how the most senior executives get paid at the top of large companies.  These companies are those that are listed on the FTSE350, and so incorporated in the UK.

It is worth remembering that it gets a bit more complex when you have people of various nationalities (i.e. non UK) and also when individuals run business units that operate outside of the UK.

Pay structure
Senior executive pay is typically comprised of

  • a base salary
  • an annual bonus
  • a long-term incentive scheme (or schemes)
  • pension arrangements

Executives may receive some benefits as well, but these are generally small in comparison with the other elements of reward.

These elements can be divided into two categories, (i) that which is fixed, and (ii) that which is variable, i.e. performance-related.

The salary, pension and any other benefits are not performance related.

The annual bonus and long-term incentives are performance related and payment is subject to meeting certain performance criteria.

At any one company, these incentives are almost all based on performance against pre-determined targets with only a small fraction based on the remuneration committee’s discretion.

We can delve into more detail on each of these elements soon…


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