FTSE 100 'fatcats' paid average annual salary for three days' work

By mid-morning on Wednesday top bosses will have earned £27,000 average yearly wage, High Pay Centre calculates

Outgoing Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts was paid £16.9m in 2012 – making her the top earning FTSE 100 boss. Photograph: Daniel Deme/EPA

By mid-morning on Wednesday, the UK's top bosses will have earned more than the average worker will take home this year.

The High Pay Centre thinktank behind the calculation has dubbed this pay landmark "Fatcat Wednesday" to draw attention to the chasm in earnings where company leaders routinely earn 160 times more than the average employee.

Chief executives at FTSE 100 companies were paid an average of £4.3m – an hourly rate of £1,100 an hour. This means they only have to put in 24 hours of work, on returning from their Christmas break, before they surpass the UK average wage of about £27,000.

While ordinary workers have seen their incomes squeezed, the business world's best paid have seen their salaries rise by around 75% over the past decade.