Chief executives of the 100 largest companies in the UK have already outstripped the earnings of the average Darlington residents, figures show.

They had already earned the yearly wage of the average Darlington resident by 9am on Thursday, January 4. 

Analysis from the High Pay Centre shows pay for FTSE 100 CEOs currently stands at £3.8 million per year.

Meanwhile, separate Office for National Statistics figures show the median full-time wage for a worker in Darlington in the 2022-23 tax year was £30,561.

It means a FTSE 100 CEO would need around 26 hours to surpass the average Darlington full-time worker's annual wage.

They have already surpassed this, as research from Harvard Business School suggests FTSE 100 CEOs work 12.5 hours per day.

Assuming they start work at 8 am, they would have earned the average yearly wage by 9am on Thursday January 4.

This comes at a time when more and more residents in the North East are feeling the pinch of the cost-of-living crisis after Christmas. 

In September last year, Darlington Debt Centre warned that the levels of insolvencies, borrowing money and people using foodbanks would go "sky-high" as the cost of living crisis intensifies this winter. 

The agency also highlighted that YouGov data has revealed that a third (700,000) of adults in the North East skip meals at least once a month, and two in five (912,000) adults lose sleep over the thought of finances. 

Research by the End Child Poverty Coalition found that Darlington had seen one of the highest increases in child poverty, with 11.4 per cent of kids in the town living below the breadline. 

Figures also show FTSE CEO pay increased by 9.5 per cent in the last year, while across the UK, full-time average wages rose by six per cent.

Luke Hildyard, the director of the High Pay Centre, said: "Lobbyists for big business and the financial services industry spent much of 2023 arguing that top earners in Britain aren’t paid enough and that we are too concerned with gaps between the super-rich and everybody else.

"They think that economic success is created by a tiny number of people at the top and that everybody else has very little to contribute.

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"When politicians listen to these misguided views, it’s unsurprising that we end up with massive inequality, and stagnating living standards for the majority of the population."

A government spokesperson said: "We have given millions of workers across the UK a historic pay rise thanks to our decision to increase the National Living Wage to £11.44 an hour.

"In total since 2010, the annual earnings of a full-time worker on the National Living Wage will have increased by over £10,000, demonstrating how we are delivering for those in work."