Mega wages handed out ad nauseam does not atone for ignorant view

Martin Sorrell’s £48.1m award exemplifies excess in field of pay awards, says Ellis Thorpe

It seems that a considerable number of shareholders in one of the most successful and largest marketing and advertising corporations in the world, can’t be persuaded that their Chief Executive merits a whacking great pay package.

Evidently they found WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell’s £70 million pay cheque of a couple of years ago just too difficult to swallow. There have been a number of shareholder voting revolts around his income, which last year, thanks to pay, bonuses and incentive scheme payouts, hit £48.1m. A similar figure was put to shareholders recently, with around a fifth voting against the board’s recommendation. Yet given the most remarkable success of the company, we mere mor- tals could be forgiven for thinking shareholders should be in a generous, congratulatory mood.

After all there is little for them to complain about as the company’s agencies are highly profitable, revenue increased by 16 per cent and profits were up £5 billion in the first four months of this year.

Noticeably a significant number were vociferous critics of the pay package, peppering their complaints with words like “excessive” and “ridiculous” for one person to be paid such a large sum, even the Chief Executive, who arrived from advertising business Saatchi and Saatchi and turned it into one of the world’s ‘Big Four’ advertising agencies. And yet it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suggest that words like “excessive” and “ridiculous” appropriate-