Shell boss Ben van Beurden has seen his annual pay package rocket 26% to £6.2 million.
A north-east union leader called the increase “obscene” at a time households are grappling with fast-rising energy costs.
Remuneration for Shell’s chief executive in 2021 was boosted by long-term incentive plan benefits worth £3.1m and an annual bonus of £2.15m, the company’s latest annual report shows.
Mr van Beurden earned a salary of £1.33m last year, the same as in 2020.
Hits total package also included pension benefits worth £337,000.
Jessica Uhl – the energy giant’s outgoing finance chief – saw her pay package soar to £3.88m last year, from £3.13m previously.
Ms Uhl is stepping down from her role as chief financial officer at the end of this month, having decided not to relocate to London when Shell moves its headquarters from the Netherlands.
For most UK workers, annual pay rises are lagging behind fast-growing inflation.
The Consumer Prices Index jumped by 5.5% in the year to January 2022.
For many British workers, this means any increase to their wages is more than wiped out by fast-rising living costs.
According to the Office for National Statistics, average total pay, including bonuses, for the last three months of 2021 was up 4.3% year-on-year – well short of Mr van Beurden’s mammoth increase.
Boss’s pay rose by 57 times that of typical worker at the company
He was paid 57 times more than the median Shell worker’s earnings of £119,112 in 2021, Shell’s report says.
His total pay package had been slashed by 42% in 2020 as the profits of energy firms plunged amid low oil prices and the impacts of Covid-19.
But oil prices have soared since then, helping Shell and its industry peers record bumper results for 2021.
Bumper profits
In February, Shell posted pre-tax profits of £14.45 billion for the 12 months to December 31 2021 – up from about £6.4billion a year earlier.
Total revenue and other income rocketed to £207.1bn, from £139.1bn previously.
Mr van Beurden described 2021 as a “momentous year for Shell”.
In the firm’s annual report, he said: “While so much has happened in recent weeks to increase the challenges our business faces, we must stay on track to ensure continued success.”
Jake Molloy, regional officer for the RMT Union in the north-east said Shell’s latest pay awards to its top bosses were “six million miles away” from the idea of a just transition.
Mr Molloy continued: “If ever there was an illustration as to why we need a new model for managing our national energy requirements, then Mr VB’s annual pay packet is it.
“How can we ask the poorest in society to pay more and more to keep their homes warm and their children fed when we have this obscene level of return for the chief of an organisation which is exploiting our natural resources?”
Greenpeace said “short-term profit” had come before reducing environmental damage.
The campaign group added: “Now that nearly everyone knows we’re in a climate emergency, why are we still finding it so difficult to cut carbon emissions?
“Because Ben van Beurden and others like him are paid six million a year not to.”
