�鶹��

The boss of Tesco has seen his pay package more than double to £10m following a bumper share award.

Ken Murphy, who took over as chief executive of the UK's largest supermarket group in October 2020, was paid £4.7m in salary and bonuses in the year to February.

The rest came from shares that were awarded to Mr Murphy when he joined and paid out this year after he surpassed a number of performance targets.

For the coming year, Mr Murphy's basic salary will be increased by 3%, which Tesco said was below a raise for its UK hourly-paid colleagues.

The company said: "When considering base salary increases for our senior executives, the committee continues to be mindful of both the wider colleague experience and our fairness principles."

Tesco staff earn £12.02 or £13.15 an hour, depending on where they work.

The supermarket chain said that it had recently raised pay for hourly earners by 9.1%, in a move similar to other big supermarkets like Aldi, Asda and M&S aimed at retaining staff.

"Tesco remains committed to a competitive and fair reward package for all colleagues," said Alison Platt, chair of Tesco's remuneration committee.

She added that Mr Murphy's pay award "recognises the strong performance of the business".

"A large proportion of the total package has been achieved because the business met stretching targets in a highly competitive sector," Ms Platt said.

In order for Mr Murphy to get a pay-out from the shares that were awarded in 2021, he had to meet or surpass certain goals linked to group sales and profit.

But Luke Hildyard, executive director of the High Pay Centre, criticised the pay increase taking effect while "their customers endure major price rises" and their employees have to get by on much less than executives.

It comes after Tesco posted bumper sales and profits last month.

The supermarket chain said pre-tax profits hit £2.3bn, up from £882m, while sales rose by 4.4% to £68.2bn in the year to 24 February.

The company said price inflation in groceries had "lessened substantially".

However, Mr Murphy said at the time that the firm was conscious "things were still difficult for many customers".