Monday, August 18, 2014

Corporate Culture: UK Executive Pay Scams Exposed

Britain's top executives are now paid more than 140 times the wages of their average employee, according to a new study. Executive pay has increased "dramatically" in relation to most workers over the past 30 years, said the High Pay Centre.

The think tank called on the Government to take "radical action" on top pay, warning that the gap in wages was creating a "deep sense of unfairness".

The research showed that in 1998, the average chief executive of a FTSE 100 company was paid 47 times the pay of their average employee.

An analysis of six major firms in 1980 found that chief executives were paid between 13 and 44 times more than that of their average employee.

The figure has now increased to 143 times, although in some companies, top executives were paid hundreds times the pay of their average employee, said the report.

The study was published following figures from the Office for National Statistics last week which showed that average pay has fallen by 0.2 per cent over the past year.

High Pay Centre director Deborah Hargreaves said: "While Government figures confirm that wages for ordinary workers keep falling, it's clear that not everyone is feeling the pain.

"When bosses make hundreds of times as much money as the rest of the workforce, it creates a deep sense of unfairness.

"Britain's executives haven't got so much better over the past two decades. The only reason why their pay has increased so rapidly compared to their employees is that they are able to get away with it.

"The Government needs to take more radical action on top pay to deliver a fair economy that ordinary people can have faith in."



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