The board of Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket group, will face shareholders at its annual meeting on Friday to explain the nearly £10 million ($13 million) remuneration package for CEO Ken Murphy.
Amid an intensifying cost of living crisis, investors are increasingly vocal against what they perceive as excessively high executive pay packages.
Tesco’s annual report, released last month, showed that Murphy received £9.93 million in remuneration for the year ending February 24, 2024, compared to £4.44 million for 2022/23.
According to ShareAction, an investment advocacy organization, Murphy's pay is 430 times the average income of a typical Tesco employee.
The organization plans to ask Tesco's board how it can justify Murphy's remuneration when wages for contract cleaners and security staff fall below the so-called real Living Wage.
The real Living Wage, set by the charity Living Wage Foundation, is the minimum hourly wage needed for workers to afford housing, food, and other basic necessities.
Currently, the real Living Wage is £13.15 per hour in London and £12 per hour in the rest of the UK, which is higher than the government's National Living Wage of £11.44 per hour.
The Good Work investor coalition managed by ShareAction oversees assets totaling $6.6 trillion. Members include LGIM, HSBC Asset Management, Aviva, NEST, and Scottish Widows.
The coalition urges all major UK supermarkets to become Living Wage employers, ensuring that all staff, including third-party contractors, are continually paid the real Living Wage.
