The Tesco chief executive, Ken Murphy, received a £9.9m pay package in 2023-24 because the supermarket had to be competitive in recruiting top talent from the global market, its chairman told investors.
"We do recruit from time to time at very senior levels from the global market and frankly we just have to be competitive with that market," Gerry Murphy said at Tesco's annual shareholder meeting yesterday.
"I have no difficulty in defending Ken's absolute level of pay given the complexity [and] scale of the business, but also particularly its performance," said Murphy, who is not related to the CEO.
The campaign groups ShareAction and the High Pay Centre questioned why Murphy's pay had more than doubled to £9.9m including bonuses when some workers in its stores do not receive the real living wage.
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