Financial Times CEO John Ridding returns ‘anomalous’ pay rise after reporters protest

Financial Times Chief Executive John Ridding is to pay back about a quarter of his £2.6 million (US$3.3 million) salary after a group of the newspaper’s reporters complained about his latest pay rise.

Steve Bird, joint head of the National Union of Journalists at the newspaper, wrote to FT editors and journalists this month saying Ridding’s pay was absurdly high and calling for him to give some back to help those on lower salaries.

Ridding said in an email to staff that his salary had been set by Japanese media group Nikkei, which bought the FT for US$1.3 billion in 2015, adding it was independently assessed and “highly performance-related”.

“While our performance has been strong, I recognise that the size of the consequent jump in my own total reward in 2017 feels anomalous and has created concerns,” he wrote. Ridding said he had decided his remuneration should be restructured.

“For now, I have decided to reinvest into the FT the increase awarded in 2017, which is £510,000 before tax.”

Ridding said “the first call” on the money would be a women’s development fund to boost the FT’s efforts to promote women to more senior roles and reduce the gender pay gap.