Bosses at Britain’s biggest companies will have made more money by the end of today than a typical worker will earn all year, according to a think-tank.

The High Pay Centre has branded today Fat Cat Wednesday because of the shocking figures.

It takes the average chief executive of a leading business just two-and-a-half days to earn the average salary of £28,200, said the independent body.

So if bosses had returned to their desks on Monday to work the bank holiday, then they would hit that total today.

It would take just over an hour-and-a-half for the best paid, Sir Martin Sorrell, to earn £28,200

It would take just over an hour-and-a-half for the best paid, Sir Martin Sorrell, said the centre. As boss of advertising giant WPP, a long-term bonus took his total package to £70million last year.

Stefan Stern, HPC director, said: ‘The continuing pay gap creates problems for us all. Fat Cat Wednesday is an important reminder of the continuing problem of the unfair pay gap. We hope the Government will recognise that further reforms to pay practices are needed.’

The findings published today will pile pressure on Theresa May to tackle excessive pay after she criticised the ‘irrational and unhealthy’ divide between bosses and ordinary workers.

Even the Institute of Directors has called for ‘corporate awareness’. It has warned that some executives have ‘assumed massive rewards while taking little of the personal risk’ usually associated with entrepreneurs.

The average pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive is nearly £4million or just over £1,000 an hour, said the High Pay Centre.

It assumes they put in 3,940 hours a year, which requires working 12 hours a day and most weekends while taking fewer than ten days for holidays.

With a typical worker earning £28,200 a year, it would take around 28 hours for a blue-chip boss to pass this average – something they would achieve today.

‘Top bosses will already have made more money by the first Wednesday of 2017 than the typical UK worker will earn all year,’ said the HPC report. ‘After a year in which elites were criticised for being out of touch and ignorant about the concerns of ordinary people, these figures confirm that there are dramatically different rates of pay at the top compared with everyone else.’

The top ten: The findings published today will pile pressure on Theresa May to tackle excessive pay after she criticised the ‘irrational and unhealthy’ divide between bosses and ordinary workers

The centre warns that excessive pay deals in the private sector ‘set a bad example’ to the public sector and not-for-profit organisations. This is seen by the huge amounts given to some headteachers and leaders of NHS trusts, councils and charities.

Simon Walker, director general at the Institute of Directors, pointed to the threat of an official clampdown. ‘Unless boards show they are listening and responding, the Government’s trigger finger will just get itchier and itchier,’ he said.

‘The problem is that over the past few decades managers have assumed massive rewards while taking little of the personal risk.’

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: ‘Working people deserve a fair share of the wealth they help create. The Prime Minister must stick to her promise to tackle excessive pay at the top.’