Allison Kirkby, chief executive of BT, received a pay and bonus package of £5.58m for the year to the end of March – more than double the £2.48m she earned in her first year in the role. It is the largest remuneration awarded to a BT boss in more than a decade, since Ian Livingston took home £9.4m in 2012-13.
The bumper payout comes as BT’s share price has surged nearly 80% since Kirkby took the helm in February 2024. The package includes a £1m cash bonus, paid this month, and £3.25m in share awards under a long-term incentive programme that will pay out over three years.
“BT chief Allison Kirkby’s pay more than doubles to £5.6m after share price surges nearly 80%.”
Kirkby, who stepped up from the board, has also been awarded a 3% increase to her £1.1m salary this year. By contrast, the company said it had agreed a 4.1% increase with unions for employees earning less than £30,000 and a 3% rise for those on more than that.
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.”
The pay rise came as BT accelerated a sweeping cost-cutting programme. In 2021 the company announced a £15bn investment to upgrade its network to full fibre broadband and 5G mobile masts. Two years later it said it would cut 55,000 staff from a global workforce of 130,000 by 2030 as the infrastructure build came to an end and parts of the operation were made more efficient with artificial intelligence.
Kirkby’s predecessor, Philip Jansen, saw his largest pay award reach £3.7m during his five years in charge. The current package is significantly higher, reflecting the share price surge as the benefits of the long and expensive restructuring programme begin to pay off.