Allison Kirkby, the chief executive of BT, took home a pay package of £5.58m last year – more than double the £2.48m she received in her first year in the role, and the biggest payout to a BT boss in more than a decade. The surge in Kirkby’s compensation came as the telecoms giant’s share price jumped almost 80% since she took the helm in February 2024.
Kirkby, who stepped up from the board, received a £1m cash bonus this month and £3.25m in share awards as part of a long-term incentive programme that will pay out over three years. The company said the share awards benefited from the “significant increase in share price” since Kirkby became chief executive. Her salary has also been increased by 3% to £1.1m.
“BT boss Allison Kirkby’s pay more than doubled to £5.6m as share price surged almost 80%.”
The pay award exceeds the largest package given to her predecessor, Philip Jansen, who earned up to £3.7m during his five-year tenure. It is the biggest remuneration for a BT boss since Ian Livingston received £9.4m in 2012-13.
The rise in Kirkby’s pay comes as BT pushes ahead with a sweeping £3.7bn cost-cutting programme. In 2023, the company announced plans to cut 55,000 staff from a global workforce of 130,000 by 2030, as its infrastructure building programme winds down and parts of the business are automated with AI. The cost-cutting follows a £15bn investment announced in 2021 to upgrade BT’s network to full fibre broadband and 5G mobile masts, after years of criticism that the UK was falling behind in digital infrastructure.
While Kirkby’s pay has soared, BT has agreed a 4.1% pay rise with unions for employees earning less than £30,000, and a 3% increase for those above that threshold. A spokesperson for BT said: “For the first time, Allison’s total remuneration this year includes the estimated value of her long-term share awards, which will release over the next three years. These have benefited from the significant increase in share price since Allison joined as chief executive in February 2024.”