Hi ,
Good news for those of us back at work this week: the UK's CEOs have probably already been paid more than we'll make this year. If that doesn't motivate you during this cold, cold January, I don't know what will.
In fact, the average FTSE 100 CEO will have been paid the median full-time worker's wage after just under 29 hours of work this year, according to new research from the High Pay Centre. Polling has shown that the majority of the public would limit the amount CEOs can be paid to no more than 10 times their employee's average wage – but in fact UK CEOs were paid 113 times more last year.
This is just an average, though. Some companies, like Tesco, paid their CEO 431 times more than the average Tesco workers; aerospace company Melrose paid their CEO just under £59 million last year, a staggering 1509 times more than the average employee. I'm going to say it: that's too much. I guess exporting fighter jet parts to Israel pays.
This is another sign of how unequal pay in the UK is. We have some of the most unequal incomes in the economically developed world, and that has real consequences on our society. Research has associated unequal pay with worse health outcomes, less trust, less happy workplaces, higher inflation, and increased support for extreme political groups.
The good news is we could do something about it. The Employment Rights Bill, which finally went through parliament at the end of last year, is good step forward for workers rights and especially for trade unions, which we know are a key defence against unequal pay. But that's not enough, which is why we've joined the High Pay Centre to launch a new petition calling for a Fat Cat Tax.
This would be a surcharge on corporation taxes that makes companies pay more in tax the more they overpay their CEO. Not only would this incentivise a fairer pay structure and punish companies like Melrose that profit most by damaging societies, but the revenue raised could be used to invest in undoing some of the worst damage caused by income inequality. |
