Willis boosts top director’s pay 50% to $1.82m
Willis awarded its directors an inflation-busting pay rise last year, despite freezing the staff wages, latest UK accounts reveal.
Total directors’ pay at Willis Limited – excluding pensions, benefits and long-term incentives – increased 9.4% from $6.6m to $7.2m last year.
The highest paid director was rewarded with a 50% pay rise, taking home $1.82m.
All this took place as total staff salaries decreased from $389m to $386m. Willis increased staff numbers from 3,444 to 3,483.
Willis aimed to end a two year salary freeze in April 2011, according to reports last year.
Accounts for Willis Limited – Willis Group Holdings UK legal entity – show there was a modest improvement in pre-tax profits from $185m (2009) to $219m (2010).
The accounts do not reveal who exactly is the highest paid director. David Margrett was chief executive of Willis Limited, until May 5, 2011, when Brendan McManus took over.
Both directors are no longer with the company following unexplained departures.
The revelations that Willis increased total director pay 9% while staff wages were frozen comes at a time when the Government is heavily focused on boardroom pay.
Figures released today by employment specialists Incomes Data Service showed that the pay of blue-chip directors swelled by 49% in a year.
A Willis spokesman said there was no across the board pay freeze last year, and that some individuals would have received increases.
The spokesman said: “There was no material change in salaries paid in 2010 to directors who were also directors in 2009.
“The increase in directors’ salaries can be attributed to the award of shares under long-term incentive plans which vested during the year.”
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