Fatcats’ greed
Average fatcat pay rise 11 times worker’s
ORDINARY workers in the UK have suffered 10 years of wage stagnation.
The squeeze has driven down living standards and plunged countless hard-working people into poverty.
Yet company chief executives barely noticed the recession and have seen their pay soar by 11 per cent in the last year.
Is it any wonder so many have lost faith in the idea of fairness in our society?
The continued greed of company fatcats is infuriating. The corporate charlatans are highly skilled at self-justification and shrugging off public outcry.
Left unchecked, they will never get their house in order.
It’s time politicians stepped in to force their hands.
THE UK’s top fatcat bosses averaged pay rises of 23 per cent last year – while hard-pressed workers got just two per cent.
The average chief executive of a FTSE 100 company banked almost £5.7million in 2017, a report out today reveals.
The sum is equivalent to the annual salaries of more than 400 care workers, 286 binmen and 165 paramedics.
It is also 38 times more than the Prime Minister gets – and comes after Theresa May’s botched bid to tackle such excess.
Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “These figures show it is business as usual in Britain’s boardrooms. It is 10 years since the casino bankers crashed the economy but nothing has changed. Excess in the City is alive and well.”
The report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and think-tank the High Pay Centre shows the amount trousered by top bosses increased last year. The average was £5.66million – 23 per cent higher than the £4.58million average in 2016. And A the hike compared with a two per cent pay rise for a typical ty worker in 2017. Last year’s fatcat total was skewed s by two mega payouts – £47million to Jeff Fairburn, boss of builders Persimmon, and £42.8million to Simon Peckham, chief executive of o City firm Melrose, who completed a controversial takeover of engineering firm GKN. The rises were a staggering 2117 and 4233 per cent respectively.
Even using the median for the average, the typical payout for a FTSE 100 chief jumped 11 per cent to just less than £4million.
CIPD chief Peter Cheese said it was disappointing “when average pay across the workforce has barely shifted”.
Luke Hildyard, of the High Pay Centre, said: “How pay is distributed within organisations has a big effect on living standards and the UK is one of the most unequal countries in Europe.”
GMB general secretary Tim Roache said it was a “badge of national shame”.
He added: “These figures expose shocking excess in boardrooms. We live in a country where fatcats get 400 times more than the dedicated, hard-working carers. Not to mention hundreds of times more than those who keep our streets clean or ambulance workers, who save lives.”
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Pay for most is barely rising at all. So people will find it hard to understand why fatcat executives are splashing the cash for themselves.”
May was accused of watering down her vow to reform boardroom pay under plans unveiled last year, including forcing binding shareholder votes.
A Business Department spokesman said: “While most companies get their responsible business practices right, we understand the anger of workers and shareholders when bosses’ pay is out of step with company performance.”