By Jaime Llinares Taboada

The median FTSE 100 chief executive officer was paid 2.7 million pounds ($3.7 million) last year, a report from the High Pay Centre think tank found.

Average earnings fell 17% from the GBP3.3 million recorded in 2019.

AstraZeneca PLC's Pascal Soriot topped the ranking with a GBP15.5 million compensation, followed by Experian PLC's Brian Cassin who earned GBP10.3 million.

In addition, HPC said the share of blue-chip companies paying an annual bonus fell to 64% from 89%, whereas the average bonus size dropped to GBP828,000 from GBP1.1 million.

The think tank said that, across the nine companies who used the U.K.'s coronavirus furlough program to pay their employees, CEO pay averaged GBP2.4 million.

Write to Jaime Llinares Taboada at jaime.llinares@wsj.com; @JaimeLlinaresT

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-19-21 0916ET