Executive pay rises by a tenth, Emperor Akihito wants to step down and why cash is best for refugees

Sign up to receive FirstFT by email here

FTSE 100 chief executives’ pay rose by a tenth last year to an average of £5.5m, according to a survey that will bolster demands by Theresa May, UK prime minister, for top British companies to curb excess in the boardroom.

The average pay of a FTSE 100 boss has risen by a third since 2010, when chief executives took home £4.1m on average, according to data compiled by the High Pay Centre, a think-tank that campaigns against excessive corporate pay.

In the US, the median pay of an S&P 500 chief executive in 2015 was $10.8m, an increase of 4.5 per cent on the year before, according to Equilar, a data provider. US chief executives were paid 204 times their employees’ median compensation in 2015, according to data compiled by Glassdoor. (FT, Guardian)

In the news

Japanese abdication Japan’s Emperor Akihito has indicated he wants to step down. In a rare televised address on Monday, the 82-year-old said ill health could prevent him from fulfilling his duties. But Japanese law does not provide for abdication and it would entail new legislation. It could also ignite a sensitive debate around reforms allowing women to inherit the throne. (FT)

Russia banned from Rio Paralympics The International Paralympic Committee did what its counterpart, the International Olympic Committee, would not and announced a blanket ban on Russian participation in the Rio Paralympic Games. The ban was accompanied by a scathing critique of the government in Moscow. (FT)

Iran executes nuclear scientist The country’s judiciary said it had executed Shahram Amiri, who claimed he had been abducted by the US, because he had revealed “classified information of the system to Iran’s hostile enemy”. Mr Amiri returned from the US in 2010 to a hero's welcome in Tehran. (FT)

Airbus corruption inquiry Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption in the passenger jet business of Airbus, where deals were struck using third-party consultants. (FT)

Florida’s Zika ‘Ground Zero’ The Florida neighbourhood singled out as the centre of transmission for mosquito-borne virus has embarked on a huge mosquito control programme. But despite the threat, the area has far less money to spend tackling the insect than other areas, such as Key West. (Telegraph)

It’s a big day for

UK commuters Passengers on Southern, one of the UK’s busiest commuter rail operators, are now almost certain to face a full working week of strike action from Monday after union talks broke down. (FT)

Presidential politics Donald Trump will lay out a proposal to stimulate US growth through trade and tax incentives aimed at pushing American businesses to bring home jobs and overseas profits. (FT)

Keep up with the important business, economic and political stories in the coming days with the FT’s weekahead.

Food for thought

Presenting your FT Business Book of the Year nominees Globalisation is back in the spotlight of the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, 11 years after Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat won the inaugural prize. Contenders include Jonathan Tepperman’s The Fix, Alex Cuadros’s Brazillionaires and Duncan Clark’s Alibaba. (FT)

Cash not aid Giving refugees money directly lets them take control of their lives and by cutting administrative costs, frees up funds so that aid agencies can help far more people. And the idea is catching on, as NGOs and the UN struggle to help the millions who have fled the war in Syria. (Quartz)

Tokyo transformation In an exclusive interview Yuriko Koike, Tokyo’s new governor — the first woman to hold the position — explains how she wants to turn the Japanese into a bustling financial hub like the one she knew when she anchored an economic news programme in the early 1990s. (NAR)

ANC takes it on the chin South Africa’s ruling party was pummelled in last week’s municipal elections. One reason for the drop in support was that urban blacks, fed up with the ANC but distrustful of the opposition, stayed away from the polls. (Guardian)

Lunch with Teju Cole The Nigerian-American novelist sits down for a meal with the FT, talking racial tensions, American exceptionalism and social media. “Michelle [Obama] already said, ‘I wake up every morning in a house built by slaves’. I want to take it further: I wake up every morning in a country built by slaves.” (FT)

Think-tanks: shadow lobbyists? A cache of confidential documents reveals the shadowy ties between large companies and supposedly independent think-tanks such as the Brookings Institution, which push the agendas of their corporate donors without disclosing the links. (NYT)

Video of the day

The week ahead Vanessa Kortekaas previews the stories to watch, including the first meeting of President Vladimir Putin and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan following a stand-off between Russia and Turkey, UK economic data and results from travel group Tui. (FT)