The median FTSE 100 CEO took home £3.41m in 2021, the highest level of CEO pay since 2018, and an increase of 39% since 2020, which stood at £2.46m, according to the High Pay Centre and Trades Union Congress (TUC).

In 2020, the average pay was £2.69m, the lowest level since 2009, down £700,000 due to the pandemic.

Sebastian De Montessus of mining conglomerate Endeavour earned £16.85m, followed by Pascal Soriot of pharma giant AstraZeneca who earned £13.86m, and Albert Manifold of construction firm CRH earned £11.68m.

FTSE 100 firms spent nearly £720m on executive pay, with 224 executives benefiting from multimillion pound pay packages.

Median CEO pay is now 109 times that of the median UK full-time worker, compared to 79 times in 2020 and 107 times in 2019.