{"id":461605,"date":"2026-04-17T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/?p=461605"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:25:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:25:42","slug":"are-fashion-retail-ceos-paid-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/insight\/comment\/are-fashion-retail-ceos-paid-too-much","title":{"rendered":"Editor&#8217;s comment: Are fashion retail CEOs paid too much?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week the salacious topic of salaries at the top of fashion retail was front of mind as the earnings of bosses at Next and John Lewis were revealed in their annual accounts.<\/p>\n<p>There were audible gasps across the Drapers team at the news that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/next-ceo-pay-tops-7-4m\">Next chief executive Lord Wolfson<\/a> received a \u00a37.43m pay packet for the year to January 2026 \u2013 up 51.3% year on year \u2013 as strong earnings growth triggered maximum bonus payouts at the business.<\/p>\n<p>It follows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/news\/john-lewis-boss-paid-1-2m-despite-job-cuts\">John Lewis chair Jason Tarry\u2019s<\/a> 21% salary increase to \u00a31.2m in the year to January 2026, along with a \u00a322,700 annual bonus, despite the retailer cutting 3,300 jobs in the same year.<\/p>\n<p>Predictably, ShareAction, a non-governmental organisation that has been campaigning for Next, Marks &amp; Spencer and JD Sports to provide their workforce with a real Living Wage, pointed out the disparity between Wolfson&#8217;s pay packet and that of the &#8220;average lower-paid employee&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As fuel costs continue to soar amid the war in the Middle East and many consumers are struggling to make ends meet, are these pay increases tone deaf or justified given the complexity and volatility that comes with leading a business through such challenging times?<\/p>\n<p>For Wolfson, the vast majority of his payout \u2013 \u00a36.19m, was linked to Next\u2019s strong financial performance. Next reported a 13.4% year-on-year increase in operating profit to \u00a31.24bn for the 52 weeks to 31 January 2026, securing him a \u00a31.45m annual bonus and \u00a34.74m from long-term incentive plan (LTIP) awards.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a John Lewis spokesperson told Drapers Tarry\u2019s salary reflects \u201cthe scale and complexity\u201d of his role, and followed the business scrapping its CEO position and making savings on executive pay overall.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, if a business is performing well, its leadership team should be rewarded and undoubtedly pay packages have to be competitive to attract and retain top talent \u2013 especially when strong leadership is required to navigate today\u2019s choppy trading waters.<\/p>\n<p>However, the disparity between these huge payouts and the average salary of a fashion retail employee (\u00a334,400 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drapersonline.com\/insight\/analysis\/is-sky-high-exec-pay-bad-for-business\">recruitment website Talent.com<\/a> shows) is stark, even more so when we consider those working on the shop floor. And it seems I am not alone in my discomfort \u2013 in a poll we posted on LinkedIn an overwhelming 74% of you told us that CEO pay is too high in today\u2019s fashion retail environment.<\/p>\n<p>As a chilly April continues, many of us are nervously questioning whether we need to put the heating on or can we wait to fill up the car for a couple more days. While fashion retail businesses need to retain the best talent at the top, they must demonstrate fairness and transparency when it comes to remuneration or risk losing staff morale, and looking out of touch with reality and the customers they are serving.<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree? I would love to hear your thoughts \u2013 drop me a line on <a href=\"mailto:jill.geoghegan@emap.com\">jill.geoghegan@emap.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for reading and see you next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week the salacious topic of salaries at the top of fashion retail was front of mind as the earnings of bosses at Next and John Lewis were revealed in their annual accounts. There were audible gasps across the Drapers team at the news that Next chief executive Lord Wolfson received a \u00a37.43m pay packet &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6468,"featured_media":400951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[970,76780],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comment","category-subscriber-only-content"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Editor&#039;s comment: Are fashion retail CEOs paid too much?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As Next CEO Lord Wolfson\u2019s \u00a37.4m pay day raised eyebrows this week, Drapers editor Jill Geoghegan examines whether 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