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Sunday 13 March 2016 2:01 pm

Sir Martin Sorrell’s salary: How long would it take you to earn the WPP boss’s proposed £70m pay?

By: Lynsey Barber

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Sir Martin Sorrell, the highest paid boss of the FTSE as chief of advertising giant WPP, is in line for an even bigger bumper payout that will leave him earning a more-than healthy £190,000 each day.

Assuming a 12 hour working day, that potential £70m would be the equivalent of more than £15,000 per hour – more than the annual salary of someone taking home the national minimum wage.

For most of us – the average take home pay coming in at around the £27,000 mark –  that would be more than 2,500 years of toil. Sorrell's pay is based on a basic £1.5m salary, with the bulk made up from share awards from a long-term incentive plan. Dividend payments, pension contributions and a short term share bonus.

Read more: Here's how generous bonuses are at John Lewis

But, even the top bosses of the FTSE 100, taking home on average just shy of £5m, would take over 14 years to earn Sorrell's £70m.

HOW LONG WOULD IT TAKE YOU TO EARN £70M?

Compare your annual income with Sorrell's in 2016 (£70m), last year (£43m) and 2014 (£29.8m).

[calculator id="62"]

At 62 per cent more than last year's pay packet, it's likely that the chief executive will face some opposition for shareholders, considering a fifth of them last year voted against his £43m cheque.

That rise added an extra 383 years to the time it would take the average Londoner to earn the same, after his earnings shot up 44 per cent. But, that has now rocketed even further, rising by an astonishing 981 years this year.

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