ACTU – CEO Pay ratio reporting to identify hotspots of wage inequality

2 October 2018

The ACTU welcomes the announcement today by Shadow Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh that a Shorten ALP government will legislate to ensure that the ratio of CEO pay to that of the median employee in the company they lead would be reported by all listed firms with more than 250 employees.

Corporate profits continue to climb, but working people aren’t getting the pay rises they need to stay ahead of the rising cost of living.

When CEO pay is at its highest in 17 years, and is routinely hundreds of times more than the median worker gets, while pay is going backwards in real terms for Australian workers even as profits increase, workers need the tools to secure better wages and conditions.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

• “CEO pay is the highest it has been in 17 years, meanwhile pay for working people is going backwards. We need systemic change to put power back in the hands of working people.
• “While we welcome efforts to improve transparency, we need to ensure that working people can use the information that transparency brings to organise and bargain for better wages and conditions.
• “We need to remove the restrictions on bargaining so that working people can bargain across sectors or industries to win the pay rises that working people need and that will reduce inequality.
• “We need to change the rules so that workers have the tools and power they need to win pay rises.”