by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Commenting on figures published on March 3, 2013 by Incomes Data Services (IDS), which show how executive pay in FTSE 100 companies outstripped both average wages and inflation in 2012, TUC General Secretary, Frances O'Grady said: “These figures highlight once again why we need urgent reform of boardroom pay. Top directors are showing little restraint while millions of workers are suffering real-term losses to their incomes and are really feeling the squeeze on their living standards.
“FTSE 100 directors' pay rose over seven times faster than average wages in some cases last year, with rises well above inflation.
'These bumper settlements bear little relation to performance. Allowing workers a seat on remuneration committees would help inject a much-needed dose of reality into pay-setting”.
While the average worker's pay, outside of the public sector the workers of which had to accept a two-year pay freeze and now have received a miserly 1% increase while Council Tax is going up by 1.9% on average, has risen by 1.9% in 2012 those of FTSE 100 chairmen has risen by 6% and others by 10% and 14% respectively which the inflation was at 2.6%. And we do not even want too talk about banker's pay and bonuses now here.
The average worker is getting poorer every day, regardless of the miserly increases, as inflation and cost of living is rising on a daily basis. Alone over the last 5 months or so the price of flour, for those of us who bake their own bread (couldn't tell you the price of bread as I haven't bought a loaf in years) has gone from 98pence (and that is Sainsbury's own brand wholemeal flour) to £1.30 or thereabouts. An increase of well over 10% and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
And still the government wants to impose further austerity measures intend on hurting no other than the already poor. Bankers and the cronies of the politicians – and every failed politician seems to end up as a highly paid director of this or that FTSE 100 company or an even higher paid consultant to industry – can carry on receiving salaries and bonuses that are so out of proportion that it is simply not true. Their salaries, however, are also included in the calculation of the figures of the average salary in the UK and thus distort that figure by miles.
We need a new system, not a new government...
© 2013
