Median maximum long-term incentive opportunity for FTSE 100 CEOs has risen from 300% to 400% of salary, while median salary increases remain at 3%, pointing to a widening gap between fixed-pay growth and the potential rewards available through long-term plans.
FTSE 100 companies are increasing the potential value of long-term rewards for chief executives far more aggressively than ordinary salaries, with new remuneration data showing that the median maximum opportunity under conventional performance share plans has risen by a third in a year.
For CEOs participating solely in performance share plans, the median maximum opportunity increased from 300% of salary in 2025 to 400% in 2026. Median executive-director salary increases, by comparison, remained at 3%, while the median maximum annual bonus opportunity for FTSE 100 CEOs was unchanged at 200% of salary.
The contrast suggests that the most significant expansion in executive-pay capacity is occurring through long-term incentives rather than fixed salary or the typical annual bonus limit. It also adds context to the headline figure in WTW's 2026 remuneration study: median FTSE 100 CEO remuneration exceeded £5 million for the first time, rising from £4.6 million to £5.1 million.
Those two developments are related to the broader direction of executive remuneration but should not be treated as the same measure. The higher LTI limits are forward-looking opportunities applying to remuneration policies and awards, whereas the £5.061 million single figure records remuneration realised in 2025/26. WTW also cautions that the single figure is significantly influenced by company financial and share-price performance.
The increase in maximum PSP opportunity is visible across the distribution.
For FTSE 100 CEOs participating only in performance share plans, the lower-quartile maximum increased from 250% of salary in 2025 to 300% in 2026. The median moved from 300% to 400%, while the upper quartile rose from 450% to 500%.
| Maximum CEO PSP opportunity | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 250% | 300% | +50 percentage points |
| Median | 300% | 400% | +100 percentage points / +33.3% |
| Upper quartile | 450% | 500% | +50 percentage points |
For a chief executive earning £1 million, a maximum opportunity equal to 300% of salary corresponds to £3 million of potential award value. At 400%, the equivalent rises to £4 million before performance outcomes and any subsequent movement in the share price are taken into account.
That does not mean the executive ultimately receives the maximum. It does, however, illustrate the scale of the change in the amount that companies are prepared to make available through long-term incentives.
Fixed pay has moved much more slowly. Median FTSE 100 CEO salary increased from £1.009 million in WTW's 2025 report to £1.048 million in 2026, a rise of about 3.9%, while the median salary increase awarded during the latest cycle remained 3%. The median maximum annual bonus opportunity also remained at 200% of salary, although the upper quartile increased from 225% to 250%.
The pattern is therefore not one of equally rapid increases across every component of executive remuneration. The largest movement is in the long-term element.
The 2026 AGM season provides further evidence of that shift.
Forty-six FTSE 100 companies tabled new remuneration policies, 35 through their routine three-year review cycle and 11 ahead of schedule. Two-thirds of those companies increased variable-pay opportunities, equivalent to around one-third of the FTSE 100 as a whole. Thirteen increased annual bonus maxima, 28 increased LTI opportunities and 10 increased both.
WTW's assessment is that this year's policy changes focused more heavily on increasing variable-pay opportunity than on redesigning incentive structures. Only two companies introduced hybrid plans combining performance and restricted shares, two made changes involving share options and four introduced stretch or "kicker" elements to existing PSPs. Around three-quarters of the FTSE 100 continue to use the established combination of an annual bonus and performance share plan.
That distinction is significant. The market has not collectively abandoned the conventional UK executive-pay model in favour of a fundamentally different structure. Instead, many companies are increasing the amount that can be awarded through structures already in widespread use.
The companies bringing remuneration policies forward before their scheduled review made particularly large changes. WTW found that their median increase in LTI opportunity was equivalent to 200% of salary, compared with about 140% among companies following the normal review cycle.
While maximum incentive opportunities are increasing, the distribution of remuneration actually realised by FTSE 100 CEOs has also widened.
WTW's 2025 data put lower-quartile CEO remuneration at £3.268 million, the median at £4.568 million and the upper quartile at £6.464 million. In the latest report, the lower quartile fell to £3.106 million, while the median increased to £5.061 million and the upper quartile climbed to £7.412 million.
| FTSE 100 CEO remuneration | 2025 | 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | £3.268m | £3.106m | -5.0% |
| Median | £4.568m | £5.061m | +10.8% |
| Upper quartile | £6.464m | £7.412m | +14.7% |
| Interquartile range | £3.196m | £4.306m | +34.7% |
Finance Gazette calculates that the gap between the lower and upper quartiles widened from £3.196 million to £4.306 million, an increase of about £1.11 million, or 34.7%, in a single year.
WTW reaches a similar conclusion from the distribution itself, noting that the interquartile range exceeded £4 million compared with a previous nine-year average of just over £3 million.
The movement is also uneven. Lower-quartile remuneration declined by about 5%, while upper-quartile remuneration rose by nearly 15%. The record median therefore does not describe a uniform increase across FTSE 100 chief executives; outcomes at the upper end of the distribution are moving substantially faster.
The payout data provide an important qualification to the rise in maximum opportunities.
Median annual bonus payouts remained around 80% of maximum, broadly unchanged from the previous year. Median PSP vesting fell from 74% of maximum in the 2025 FTSE 100 data to 70% in 2026, although the latest figure remains above WTW's longer-term norm of about 65%.
The increase in maximum LTI opportunity has therefore not been accompanied by an increase in the proportion of those maximum awards actually vesting. Companies are raising the potential ceiling on long-term remuneration while the latest vesting rate has moved in the opposite direction.
That separation is central to interpreting the figures. A 400%-of-salary maximum describes the amount potentially available under the plan; it does not mean an executive receives four times salary as an LTI award in practice.
The move towards greater long-term reward capacity has also come with higher expectations for executive share ownership.
Of the 46 companies tabling new remuneration policies, 25 increased share-ownership guidelines, typically alongside higher LTI opportunity levels. Across the FTSE 100, median shareholding requirements now stand at 400% of salary for CEOs and 300% for CFOs.
The CEO median was 390% in the 2025 report, while the CFO median was 260%, meaning the respective requirements have risen to 400% and 300%. Actual median beneficial CEO shareholdings are substantially higher still, at 720% of salary across the FTSE 100.
At the same time, companies are changing what happens to annual bonuses once those ownership requirements have been satisfied. Half of companies operating bonus deferral now use a tapered arrangement, up from one-quarter last year. Among them, just over half typically reduce deferral to 50% of its previous level, while just under half remove the requirement altogether.
The resulting picture is more nuanced than a simple increase in executive pay. Larger potential long-term rewards are increasingly being combined with substantial equity ownership requirements and, once those requirements have been met, greater flexibility over bonus deferral.
The increase in remuneration opportunity has not, so far, produced broad shareholder rejection.
Median AGM support in 2026 was 97% for remuneration reports and 95% for remuneration policies. Seven companies received support below 80% on remuneration resolutions, down from 11 in 2025, while no remuneration resolution failed compared with one the previous year.
That should not be interpreted as universal shareholder approval of higher incentive limits. WTW says concerns behind the lower votes typically involved increases in variable-pay opportunities or atypical remuneration structures. The aggregate results nevertheless show that sizeable policy changes continued to secure high levels of shareholder support across much of the FTSE 100.
Median FTSE 100 CEO remuneration exceeding £5 million is the most immediately striking figure in WTW's latest report, but the underlying remuneration data point to a broader structural change.
Median salary increases remain at 3%, the typical maximum annual bonus remains at 200% of salary and conventional performance share plans continue to dominate. Against that relatively stable backdrop, the median maximum PSP opportunity has risen from three times salary to four times salary in a single year.
Realised remuneration has also become considerably more dispersed, even as the proportion of maximum PSP awards vesting has fallen. The result is not simply higher executive pay across the board, but a widening of the potential long-term rewards available to chief executives and of the outcomes ultimately recorded across the FTSE 100.
The more important development in the 2026 figures may therefore be less that median CEO remuneration has crossed £5 million than where companies are creating additional pay capacity: increasingly in long-term, performance-linked incentives rather than through comparable increases in fixed salary or median annual bonus limits.
