Non-executive director salary UK: a 2026 pay guide

How much does a non-executive director earn in the UK?

A typical UK non-executive director salary sits between £20,000 and £100,000 a year, depending on the size and listing status of the company, with the median FTSE 100 NED earning £76,000. The most authoritative annual figures for the salary of non executive director appointments in the UK come from Alvarez & Marsal’s Non-Executive Director Fees in the FTSE All-Share report, published each December, with parallel analyses from Willis Towers Watson, Mercer, and KPMG. The picture for 2025, drawn from those sources, is consistent and worth setting out plainly.

The median FTSE 100 non-executive director was paid £76,000 in 2025, with most fees falling in the £70,000 to £94,000 range. The median FTSE 100 chair was paid £440,000, with a typical range of £350,000 to £632,000. FTSE 250 NEDs earned considerably less, typically £54,000 to £65,000, with FTSE 250 chairs earning roughly £200,000 to £300,000. Below the FTSE 250, in AIM-listed and smaller listed companies, NED fees commonly sit between £25,000 and £50,000, and chairs between £50,000 and £150,000.

A & M’s December 2025 report also flagged a trend that’s worth understanding before any conversation about NED pay benchmarking. Median FTSE 100 NED fees have lagged CPI inflation for several years running, meaning that non-executive director pay in real terms has been falling. The corporate-advisory community has, as a result, started to argue more openly that UK NED fees are no longer fully competitive against US and European boards for the most experienced candidates, particularly in sectors where global directors have realistic alternatives. That argument is shaping pay decisions in the FTSE 100 in 2026, with several boards proposing inflation-linked rises for the first time in years.

NED pay by company tier: FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and smaller

The single most important factor in NED salary UK benchmarking is the size and listing status of the company, and the gap between tiers is sharper than most candidates assume before they start benchmarking. The realistic 2026 ranges look like this.

FTSE 100 NED pay sits at £70,000 to £94,000 base fee, with a median around £76,000. Chairs of board committees, particularly the audit, remuneration, and risk committees, receive an additional £15,000 to £30,000 on top of the base, and the senior independent director (SID) typically receives a similar uplift. A typical FTSE 100 NED with one committee chair earns roughly £100,000 to £125,000 in total annual fees.

FTSE 250 NED: £54,000 to £65,000 base fee, with committee chair uplifts of £8,000 to £15,000. Total fees for a FTSE 250 NED with a committee chair typically sit between £65,000 and £85,000.

FTSE All-Share (smaller listed) NED: £35,000 to £55,000, with smaller committee uplifts. Total fees rarely exceed £65,000 for a working NED at this level.

AIM-listed and smaller quoted company NED: £25,000 to £45,000 in most cases, sometimes paid partly in shares or share options rather than entirely in cash, particularly in growth-stage businesses where conserving cash is a strategic priority.

Private and PE-backed company NED: £20,000 to £60,000, with significant variation. The cash element tends to be lower than at listed companies of comparable size, with some compensation taken as equity, particularly in PE-backed businesses where the NED is expected to add value to the eventual exit.

FTSE 100 chair: £350,000 to £632,000, with a median of £440,000. Chair fees are materially higher than NED fees because the role demands significantly more time (typically two to three days a week, sometimes more), carries greater accountability, and includes the public-facing aspects of board leadership.

FTSE 250 chair: £200,000 to £300,000.

Smaller listed and AIM company chair: £80,000 to £180,000 in most cases.

These ranges aren’t strict limits, and individual appointments can sit well outside them depending on sector, company performance, and board composition. They’re a more honest starting point than any single “average non-executive director salary uk” figure you’ll find on aggregator sites, because they reflect the actual structure of the UK board market.

Chair vs NED vs SID: why the pay gap is so large

The fee gap between a UK chair and a non-executive director is one of the most striking features of UK board pay, and understanding why it exists matters for anyone benchmarking their own fees or designing a board’s remuneration structure. The chair of a FTSE 100 company earns, on the median, almost six times what a NED at the same company earns, and the gap reflects three real differences in the role.

Time commitment. A FTSE 100 chair typically commits two to three days a week to the role, sometimes more during transitional periods, M&A activity, or crisis events. A FTSE 100 NED commits closer to 25 to 35 days a year, including board and committee meetings, preparation time, site visits, and ad-hoc engagement with the executive team. The chair’s role is, in time terms, three or four times the NED’s role.

Accountability. The chair carries personal accountability for the effectiveness of the board, the relationship with the chief executive, and the strategic dialogue between the board and shareholders. NEDs share collective accountability for board decisions but don’t carry the same individual responsibility for board performance.

Public profile. The chair represents the company externally, particularly to major shareholders, regulators, and in some cases the press, in a way that NEDs typically don’t. That external role brings reputational risk and demands experience that’s worth more in the open market than the same person’s NED experience would be.

The senior independent director (SID) sits between the chair and the standard NED in most fee structures, with a typical FTSE 100 SID earning the base NED fee plus a £15,000 to £30,000 uplift, reflecting the SID’s role as a sounding board for shareholders and as the chair’s deputy on board governance. SID fees in the FTSE 250 are typically £8,000 to £15,000 above the base NED fee.

How NED fees are structured

Unlike executive pay, which is dominated by long-term incentive plans and annual bonuses, non-executive director fees are almost entirely fixed cash, with very limited variable or share-based elements. The structure on a typical UK listed company looks like this.

Base fee. A flat annual cash retainer paid to every NED on the board, typically the same across all NEDs regardless of seniority of background. The base fee is the headline figure most often quoted in pay surveys.

Committee chair fee. An additional flat fee paid to NEDs who chair a board committee. The audit, remuneration, and risk committees typically command higher chair fees than the nomination committee, reflecting the greater time and responsibility involved.

Senior independent director fee. A flat uplift paid to the SID, in addition to the base NED fee.

Travel and expenses. Reimbursement of reasonable expenses related to board duties, occasionally with a fixed travel allowance for NEDs based outside the UK or a long way from the company’s headquarters.

Equity. UK listed-company NEDs are typically not granted shares or share options as part of their fees, and many institutional investors actively oppose NED equity participation on independence grounds. The exception is some private and PE-backed companies, where NED equity participation is more common and is seen as aligning the NED with the company’s exit objectives.

Note: The absence of variable pay is deliberate, not an oversight. Independence is the central value of a non-executive role, and bonuses or share-price-linked incentives are seen by most UK governance frameworks as compromising that independence. The Financial Reporting Council’s guidance is consistently clear on this, and remuneration committees that propose share-based NED rewards in listed companies typically face significant shareholder pushback.

NED pay in the charity and public sectors

Outside the corporate world, NED salary levels look very different, and the rules around remuneration are stricter.

Charity trustees in the UK are almost always unpaid, with the exception of reasonable expenses, and the default position under Charity Commission guidance is that trustees should serve voluntarily. A charity that wishes to pay its trustees must obtain Charity Commission consent, demonstrate that paid trusteeship is in the charity’s best interests, and document the rationale carefully. In practice, only a small number of UK charities pay their trustees, usually the very largest, and the fees are modest by corporate standards, typically £4,000 to £15,000 for a board role.

NHS provider NEDs, including those at NHS Foundation Trusts and Integrated Care Boards, operate within a regulated remuneration structure published by NHS England. As of 2026, NHS NED fees typically start at around £13,000 for the smallest providers and rise to roughly £20,000 to £25,000 for the largest, with chair fees ranging from £35,000 to £70,000 depending on trust size. The fees are deliberately below corporate equivalents, reflecting the public-service nature of the role, and most candidates take them for reasons that aren’t financial.

Public sector and arms-length body NEDs, appointed by government departments to bodies such as Ofgem, Ofcom, and the various regulators, usually earn £8,000 to £25,000 per role, again at deliberately lower-than-corporate levels.

For senior executives considering a transition into the charity, NHS, or public sector NED world, the practical reality is that the work is rarely about the income. It tends to attract candidates who want to give back, build a portfolio career around purpose, or test board governance experience before pursuing corporate NED roles. The financial trade-off is real, but for the right person, it’s the right trade-off.

NED tax: PAYE or self-employed?

One of the most asked questions about non-executive director pay is how it’s taxed, and HMRC’s position is more clear-cut than many candidates assume. NED fees are, in almost all cases, treated as employment income, subject to PAYE and National Insurance, even when the NED holds the role on what they consider a self-employed basis in their other professional work.

The reason is that a non-executive directorship is, legally, an office of the company, and HMRC treats office holders as employees for tax purposes regardless of any consultancy structure the NED might use elsewhere. The NED is paid for holding the office of director, not for providing services as a consultant, and the office-holder treatment overrides any contractual framing the company or NED might otherwise prefer.

There are exceptions, but they’re narrow. If a NED also provides genuine, separately-contracted consultancy services to the company (for example, specialist advice on a specific project that goes beyond board duties), the consultancy fees can be paid separately and treated as self-employed income for tax purposes, provided the services and the NED role are clearly distinguished. Some NEDs provide services through a personal service company, although the IR35 rules now make that approach significantly more difficult than it used to be, and most companies prefer to pay NEDs through PAYE simply to avoid the tax risk.

Tip: If you’re considering a NED role and you currently operate through a personal service company, take HMRC-aware tax advice before you accept. The default treatment will be PAYE through the company’s payroll, which may have implications for your overall tax position that aren’t immediately obvious.

What affects how much a NED earns

A handful of factors explain most of the variation in NED salary within any given company tier, and they’re worth understanding when benchmarking your own pay or designing a fee structure.

Sector. Financial services, pharmaceuticals, and large industrial businesses tend to pay above-market NED fees, reflecting the regulatory complexity, technical depth, or scale of the businesses involved. Retail, leisure, and consumer goods tend to pay slightly below market for the same listing tier.

Committee load. A NED who chairs the audit committee or the remuneration committee typically earns 20% to 40% more than a NED with no committee responsibilities, and a NED who sits on multiple committees earns more again. Committee chair fees are usually the largest single source of variation between NEDs at the same company.

Sector-specific expertise. A NED with deep, hard-to-replace technical expertise (for example, a former cybersecurity executive on a financial services board, or a former pharmaceuticals R&D leader on a biotech board) can sometimes negotiate above-tier fees, although the room to do so is limited by the company’s wider NED pay structure.

International or remote duties. A NED based outside the UK, or required to attend board meetings overseas, sometimes receives a travel uplift on top of the base fee, although this is more commonly handled through expenses than through a higher headline number.

Company performance and complexity. Boards with material M&A activity, regulatory transitions, or governance challenges sometimes pay above-market fees during the transitional period, on the basis that the workload is materially higher than steady-state.

For candidates negotiating their first NED appointment, the realistic advice is that fee negotiation room is narrower than it tends to be at executive level. Most listed companies have a published NED fee structure that applies uniformly to incoming NEDs, and the room to move on the headline number is usually limited to whether you also take on a committee chair role from day one or after a year on the board.

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• CEO Salary UK 2026: What Do Chief Executives Actually Earn? - the executive-pay companion piece, with verified FTSE 100, FTSE 250, private-company, and charity-sector ranges.
• Board Effectiveness: What Makes a UK Board Work Well in 2026 - practical guidance on the board dynamics that make a NED role rewarding or difficult.
• How to Become a Non-Executive Director: A UK Guide for 2026 - the companion piece on the path into NED roles, including qualifications, time commitment, and how to secure your first appointment.

If you’re a board reviewing its NED remuneration structure, or an executive considering a non-executive appointment, our team works with companies and candidates across UK industry on board, executive, and senior management roles. You can explore our board, chairman and NED practice or get in touch through our executive opportunities page.