>Chief executives should have their pay capped to maintain a fair balance between workers and bosses, according to a survey that found a majority of respondents in favour of restricting top salaries.
>A poll by the High Pay Centre thinktank of more than 2,000 people found that 55% agreed that chief executive pay should be set as a multiple of workers’ low or average earnings “so that pay differences between the high and low or middle earners don’t grow too wide”. Only 15% objected.
>Against a backdrop of rows over bosses’ pay and bonuses in the water industry and calls by the head of the London Stock Exchange for chief executives to be paid more to retain “top talent”, the thinktank said the survey showed that there was a growing appetite for a rethink about the relationship between the boardroom and workers on the shop floor.
>The thinktank, which said its survey was funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust and conducted independently by the polling firm Survation, called on ministers to consider handing workers the right to be on company boards and to publish more information about top pay.
>Asked if they supported the idea of voting for two workers on a board, 51% said yes and only 11% opposed. Enhanced transparency over the pay for top earners was supported by 70% of respondents, “meaning companies would publish more information on employees making over £150,000”.
>The High Pay Centre will publish “A Charter for Fair Pay” this week ahead of the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill. It will argue that the UK needs to reset the relationship between workers and top executives to foster a more collaborative way of working and stronger economic growth.
SchoolForSedition on
Given that companies are the way to transfer public money to private pockets, this may not be readily grasped.
Nacho2331 on
Honestly, I don’t understand how this can happen in this country…
CleanMyTrousers on
Gotta love the retaining top talent argument. Retaining implying they’re remotely close to top talent.
A top talent doctor, nurse, teacher, nuclear scientist, astronaut, civil engineer, pharma research scientist, architect, pilot or bloody intelligence agent apparently doesn’t need multiple millions.
What talent do these CEO hacks who just asset strip companies they didn’t build into their own bank accounts have that justifies the pay.
If they at least founded the company I’d be more forgiving but most of the big pay boys did not, and even if they did they should pull the bottom of their pay scale up with them once the company is successful.
Nobody expects the janitor to make the same as the CEO, but the CEO shouldn’t earn hundreds of times as much either.
FluffyBunnyFlipFlops on
Everyone says that until they’re promoted to being a boss. 😉
AnotherKTa on
Breaking news: companies outsource all low paid roles to external agencies.
morewhitenoise on
Another sure fire way to drive executive roles out of the country. Great!
test_test_1_2_3 on
What a pointless article, restrict the pay of executives? This is pants on head stupidity but the Guardian isn’t known for their takes on economics.
The UK is already falling further behind every year, productivity is stagnant, wages are stagnant, taxes are rising and public services are crumbling.
Bringing in socialism will just be the nail in the coffin.
Obviously if you ask low and middle income people they will say they want to earn more and CEOs to earn less. You don’t need a survey for that.
How about we fix the root of the issue and make the UK a good place to set up companies and remove barriers to output rather than acting like crabs in a bucket. That and stop flooding the bottom end of the job market with unsustainable levels of immigration.
Dirty_Techie on
I totally agree with the point being made here, more importantly when the actual workers who make the money for these board members or execs are paid kittens.
Sure the board and execs take on most risk and or responsibility but when you have a tiered system where they simply offload their risk and responsibility to their subs, it doesn’t warrant the pay they get.
Definitely needs to be fairer, sure your being paid to do your job but when the execs do piss for 3-5x your pay it’s a kick in the teeth.
In my opinion, it would also be a negative for people to give 110% when their paid kittens. I work in IT and I have to study, learn and keep on top of everything in and out of work just to stay afloat or at least take the next step in my career.
peareauxThoughts on
It’s down the company’s to decide if they’re getting value for (their) money on executive pay.
peareauxThoughts on
Maybe companies can freeze employee wages, and commit to reducing executive salaries by a percentage each year? It will save them money, and improve equality. Everyone wins.
xParesh on
This sentiment is why the UK will never give rise to companies like Apple, Meta, Google and Netflix.
If you’re an ambitious Brit and have a great revolutionary idea, please leave these shores and realise your dreams in many of the the other vastly business friendly countries.
The UK continues to vote for and opinionates for policies that will accelerate it’s decline.
The cult of envy reigns supreme in the UK where it’s more important that we’re all closer to being equally poorer than much richer but seperated overall because it’s a about that gap at the end of the day
Mooscowsky on
Workers say. What do the bosses say? They earn so much because they are the best at what they do – increasing the value of the company to benefit the shareholders. If they could get someone and pay them less they would.
demidom94 on
Instead of reducing CEO pay, how about increasing workers wages to bridge the gap. No? Why not? CEOs can keep their pay (provided the company does well and they deserve their remuneration package) and then your workers are happy and can actually afford a better life. Some companies make *billions* in profit hey insist that they can’t pay more than *tHe mARkEt rAtE.*
BroodLord1962 on
I used to work with a man who was constantly saying just this. He would never work over-time, and would do nothing more than the bare minimum that stopped the company from sacking him. Even with decent pay rises and good bonuses he would give nothing back other than the bare minimum. All the different people I have worked with during my life, the ones who demand this are the ones who are least worthy of better wages
3106Throwaway181576 on
People don’t understand how corporate budgets work.
Pay is always higher for new employees because they have to pay over market rate to attract you, and then they break every after 2-5 years. There’s 0 incentive to pay staff more because most staff will take their 2% and not leave. They don’t care if you do leave because they’ve been underpaying you for so long that they have already made their money on you.
If you’re in a job more than 3 years without a promotion, you’re underpaid. If you’re in a job more than 5 years with no promotion, you’re severely underpaid and likely overworked.
Always job hop.
Dizzy-King6090 on
In the 70s, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 20:1 so basically CEO was earning 20 times more than the average employee. Today this ratio is between 272:1 to 400:1 depending on the company and how the CEO is being compensated (stock options, bonuses etc.). That’s 1000% increase!
17 Comments
>Chief executives should have their pay capped to maintain a fair balance between workers and bosses, according to a survey that found a majority of respondents in favour of restricting top salaries.
>A poll by the High Pay Centre thinktank of more than 2,000 people found that 55% agreed that chief executive pay should be set as a multiple of workers’ low or average earnings “so that pay differences between the high and low or middle earners don’t grow too wide”. Only 15% objected.
>Against a backdrop of rows over bosses’ pay and bonuses in the water industry and calls by the head of the London Stock Exchange for chief executives to be paid more to retain “top talent”, the thinktank said the survey showed that there was a growing appetite for a rethink about the relationship between the boardroom and workers on the shop floor.
>The thinktank, which said its survey was funded by the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust and conducted independently by the polling firm Survation, called on ministers to consider handing workers the right to be on company boards and to publish more information about top pay.
>Asked if they supported the idea of voting for two workers on a board, 51% said yes and only 11% opposed. Enhanced transparency over the pay for top earners was supported by 70% of respondents, “meaning companies would publish more information on employees making over £150,000”.
>The High Pay Centre will publish “A Charter for Fair Pay” this week ahead of the forthcoming Employment Rights Bill. It will argue that the UK needs to reset the relationship between workers and top executives to foster a more collaborative way of working and stronger economic growth.
Given that companies are the way to transfer public money to private pockets, this may not be readily grasped.
Honestly, I don’t understand how this can happen in this country…
Gotta love the retaining top talent argument. Retaining implying they’re remotely close to top talent.
A top talent doctor, nurse, teacher, nuclear scientist, astronaut, civil engineer, pharma research scientist, architect, pilot or bloody intelligence agent apparently doesn’t need multiple millions.
What talent do these CEO hacks who just asset strip companies they didn’t build into their own bank accounts have that justifies the pay.
If they at least founded the company I’d be more forgiving but most of the big pay boys did not, and even if they did they should pull the bottom of their pay scale up with them once the company is successful.
Nobody expects the janitor to make the same as the CEO, but the CEO shouldn’t earn hundreds of times as much either.
Everyone says that until they’re promoted to being a boss. 😉
Breaking news: companies outsource all low paid roles to external agencies.
Another sure fire way to drive executive roles out of the country. Great!
What a pointless article, restrict the pay of executives? This is pants on head stupidity but the Guardian isn’t known for their takes on economics.
The UK is already falling further behind every year, productivity is stagnant, wages are stagnant, taxes are rising and public services are crumbling.
Bringing in socialism will just be the nail in the coffin.
Obviously if you ask low and middle income people they will say they want to earn more and CEOs to earn less. You don’t need a survey for that.
How about we fix the root of the issue and make the UK a good place to set up companies and remove barriers to output rather than acting like crabs in a bucket. That and stop flooding the bottom end of the job market with unsustainable levels of immigration.
I totally agree with the point being made here, more importantly when the actual workers who make the money for these board members or execs are paid kittens.
Sure the board and execs take on most risk and or responsibility but when you have a tiered system where they simply offload their risk and responsibility to their subs, it doesn’t warrant the pay they get.
Definitely needs to be fairer, sure your being paid to do your job but when the execs do piss for 3-5x your pay it’s a kick in the teeth.
In my opinion, it would also be a negative for people to give 110% when their paid kittens. I work in IT and I have to study, learn and keep on top of everything in and out of work just to stay afloat or at least take the next step in my career.
It’s down the company’s to decide if they’re getting value for (their) money on executive pay.
Maybe companies can freeze employee wages, and commit to reducing executive salaries by a percentage each year? It will save them money, and improve equality. Everyone wins.
This sentiment is why the UK will never give rise to companies like Apple, Meta, Google and Netflix.
If you’re an ambitious Brit and have a great revolutionary idea, please leave these shores and realise your dreams in many of the the other vastly business friendly countries.
The UK continues to vote for and opinionates for policies that will accelerate it’s decline.
The cult of envy reigns supreme in the UK where it’s more important that we’re all closer to being equally poorer than much richer but seperated overall because it’s a about that gap at the end of the day
Workers say. What do the bosses say? They earn so much because they are the best at what they do – increasing the value of the company to benefit the shareholders. If they could get someone and pay them less they would.
Instead of reducing CEO pay, how about increasing workers wages to bridge the gap. No? Why not? CEOs can keep their pay (provided the company does well and they deserve their remuneration package) and then your workers are happy and can actually afford a better life. Some companies make *billions* in profit hey insist that they can’t pay more than *tHe mARkEt rAtE.*
I used to work with a man who was constantly saying just this. He would never work over-time, and would do nothing more than the bare minimum that stopped the company from sacking him. Even with decent pay rises and good bonuses he would give nothing back other than the bare minimum. All the different people I have worked with during my life, the ones who demand this are the ones who are least worthy of better wages
People don’t understand how corporate budgets work.
Pay is always higher for new employees because they have to pay over market rate to attract you, and then they break every after 2-5 years. There’s 0 incentive to pay staff more because most staff will take their 2% and not leave. They don’t care if you do leave because they’ve been underpaying you for so long that they have already made their money on you.
If you’re in a job more than 3 years without a promotion, you’re underpaid. If you’re in a job more than 5 years with no promotion, you’re severely underpaid and likely overworked.
Always job hop.
In the 70s, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 20:1 so basically CEO was earning 20 times more than the average employee. Today this ratio is between 272:1 to 400:1 depending on the company and how the CEO is being compensated (stock options, bonuses etc.). That’s 1000% increase!