Shameless CEOs: Are they worth it?

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

Almost 50 years ago, the American philosopher John Rawls published a celebrated account of what fairness looks like in a liberal democracy. Though scrupulous in its safeguarding of individual freedoms, A Theory of Justice incorporated an important rider. Rawls’ so-called ‘‘difference principle’’ stipulated that resulting inequalities were justified only if they benefited the least well-off in society.

It is doubtful Rawls would have judged the pay of Tim Steiner, chief executive of online grocery delivery company Ocado, to fall into this category. A report by the High Pay Centre thinktank revealed that Mr Steiner last year earned £58.7m, 2605 times the average wage of one of his employees, which stands at £22,500.

The centre’s analysis reveals the biggest pay gaps in the British economy are in retail, where the CEO/employee ratio is 140:1. But they reflect more broadly an explosion in executive pay over recent decades. In the UK’s 100 biggest stock market-listed companies, chief executives pocket 73 times the amount paid to workers on average. Forty years ago, the ratio was 18:1. The details of Mr Steiner’s pay were disclosed on the same day it emerged that 800,000 people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. As the working poor resort to foodbanks in ever larger numbers, Unicef has launched an emergency response in Britain and will channel over £700,000 to food-insecure households across the country.

This gulf between the top and bottom of our society is is immoral. The notion of regulating the pay ratio between CEOs and employees has been mooted in the past. It urgently needs to be revisited.