The two bodies say corporate remuneration committees, which decide executive pay levels within each company, should be more diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity and professional background in order to combat group-think. “Too much wealth is being hoarded at the top,” she said, adding that reforms were needed to bring executive pay “back down to earth”. “It’s not fair, and it makes no sense in how we value people’s contribution to society and it makes no sense for the economy – I don’t know any care workers who squirrel their wages away in offshore accounts, they spend it in their local areas and on paying their bills.”įrances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, also slammed “greedy executives” she said were “taking more than they’ve earned”. Three days into the year and fat cat bosses have already made what average workers will earn all year. The GMB’s general secretary, Tim Roache, said: “It’s sickening.
The figures have prompted criticism from both unions and shareholder groups. It means CEOs working average 12-hour days would only have to clock in for 29 hours in 2019 to earn the median £29,574 of British staff. That’s up 11% compared to a year earlier. Calculations by the High Pay Centre thinktank and the professional HR body the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) show top executives are earning 133 times more than the average worker, at a rate of around £1,020 per hour or £3.9m annually.
