Pearson's Marjorie Scardino takes home £2.3m pay package

The pay packet of Dame Marjorie Scardino, the chief executive of Financial Times owner Pearson, increased a recession-busting 13% last year to more than £2.3m. Scardino, who saw her remuneration packet increase by £271,000 over 2008, was one of the senior executives in the UK media industry to take a bonus in a year when a number of companies imposed freezes. Her base salary was £950,000 and she took home a bonus of £1.3m after Pearson managed a 13% year-on-year rise in pre-tax profits last year . She also took home £56,000 in allowances and £21,000 in benefits. Rona Fairhead, the chief executive of Financial Times Group, had a pay increase of about 6.5% to £1.1m. Fairhead received a £570,000 bonus. John Makinson, the head of publisher Penguin, was given a 15% increase in pay packet to £1.43m. He received a £655,000 bonus. Scardino, Fairhead, Makinson and David Bell, Pearson's director of people who retired last year, also had the use of a chauffeur. Will Ethridge, the head of Pearson's North American publishing business, also had a 15% increase in remuneration to £1.4m. He received a bonus of £874,000. In total six directors on the Pearson board took home packages in excess of £900,000 – four earning more than £1m – with Pearson paying out a total of £8.3m in remuneration. Of that, £4.1m was for salaries and £4.2m in bonuses. Pearson said that it did not increase the base salary of any executive director last year. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".