× Thanks for reading! Log in to continue. Enjoy more articles by logging in or creating a free account. No credit card required. Log in Sign up {{featured_button_text}}

BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley is due to receive $19.6 million in pay, a 20 percent raise, even after the company lost a record $6.4 billion and laid off 5,000 workers last year.

The London-based energy giant, which operates the BP Whiting Refinery on Lake Michigan, announced another 7,000 layoffs worldwide so far this year in response to a huge drop in the price of crude oil. Dudley is in line to be paid 280 times as much as workers at the Whiting refinery, who earn around $70,000 a year on average, according to the United Steelworkers union.

BP shareholders will vote on whether to approve the compensation plan at BP's Annual General Meeting on Thursday at the ExCeL International Convention Center, in London.

Dudley's compensation package had been $16.3 million in 2014, and is due to increase by about $3.3 million for 2015 because the company's financial performance exceeded expectations. Even so, BP shares dropped 24 percent in value last year. The company recorded its single-largest annual loss in history, due largely to the fall in crude oil prices.

Activist investors aren't happy with the proposed compensation, saying it rewards failure.