Summary
A survey by the High Pay Centre found that 55% of respondents support capping CEO pay to maintain a fair balance between workers and bosses.
The thinktank also recommends giving workers the right to vote on company boards and increasing transparency about top pay.
The UK government is under pressure to address income inequality, which has grown by 1.3% in 2022, with the poorest 20% experiencing a 3.4% reduction in disposable income while the richest 20% saw a 3.3% increase.
Pay gap between bosses and employees is totally fine, UK bosses say.
Shareholders: pay gap between bosses and employees must be increased!
Nah, Shareholders would probably rather see that money come their way
The trouble is, people like my MD has an accountant, and accountants are really good at showing rich people how to save money. So my MD takes essentially no salary.
But he does take home in excess of £300k a year in dividends. As does his wife, who hasn’t worked for the firm for six years, but is still a director.
Then he gripes about pay rises for the 120 people who work for him.
If the world does not address the fact that companies no longer work for anything but next quarters shareholders meeting, china will eat everyone’s lunch.
The fact china was able to work quietly and then make all the worlds car manufacturers technically obsolete in 5 years shows that long term planning and direction works wonders. Their models works… just don’t care about the harm you cause along the way.
There must be a middle ground that works… I’d argue for a bigger government involved in directing the economy and countries more… not less, profit caps and revenue taxation… but people smarter than me might have better ideas.
I think there needs to be a heavier tax on short term investment. This would disincentivize quarterly returns over multi year returns, and make investors prioritize longer term planning.
Right now you only pay taxes on stocks based on what you cash out every year, I think the length of an investment should ease its tax burden. Hold a stock for 1 year, you pay a high percentage when you sell. Hold it for years and that percentage drops every year until you hit a minimum. I think a 5 to 10 year period before it hits the tax minimum would be good for encouraging longer term investment.
It would also shift the focus away from companies being increasingly profitable over short terms periods. That’s simply not how any business works, and it’s ridiculous that it’s become the norm to expect that. It gives companies a chance to have bad quarters and years, without as much fear that their investment will dry up overnight.
I fear that will just cause the squeeze to focus on dividend payout, stock splits and buybacks.
There’s a big difference between wanting something and doing something about it. Even if 90% of Britons wanted to cap CEO pay, if they vote for parties that don’t legislate that or don’t show up to the polls, it won’t happen.
We have two parties and the one with the highest chance to do this is in power cureently
The UK has more than that. 13 according to wikipedia.
To be clear, yes we have more political parties but they don’t have a hope in hell to get in and have any power unless it’s in a coalition with either labor or the conservatives. They may gain seats in the commons but very little political sway.
We have the same FPTP 2 party issue as the US.
Who are the 45% ?
People who think they will be there, those who can possibly get there and those who support unfettered capitalism with or without fully understanding the concept.
ITT:
- “No shit.”
- People like the smell of Executive butthole
Damn, 55% of Brits are tankies
Why? If you work harder, have more experience and responsibilities you should earn more. Simple.
Do you believe that the average CEO works harder or has more experience than the average worker?
Do you think they work 400 times harder, or have 400 times more experience?
Oh oh oh I know this one!! The answer changes for this! Only I can use the “work harder” argument to suit my needs, once you turn it on me I get to say “HaRd WoRk IsNt ThE sAmE aS VaLuAbLe WoRk!!”
Ooh ooh! And then the next one is “They deserve it because they take on all the risk”! while getting endless bailouts and complete immunity from all liability.
Thats fair enough but, for me, the problem is that one of the many things that are highly valuable is a CEO thats very good at paying everyone below them as little as possible, to maximise wealth extraction by shareholders. Valuable to who?
Of course, youd be right to say that how business works but I think its unfair to use the paygap they’re incentivised to make as justification of the paygap its self. By far and away, most of the people in the world work for their money.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about this. I don’t really care if someone who works harder than me and or was more successful having a bigger house and a faster car etc. I don’t think those things matter as much to me and the incentive can, potentially, be put to really wholesome uses. To me, the only question is “how much more?”
The problem is the people who don’t work for their money and just own for it instead. Not that you’ve said either way but they dont necessarily and very often don’t work harder, have more experience or more responsibilities. Once you’re wealthy enough, you can have nearly all of that taken care or for you.
Personally, I agree with it in the sense of at least the CEOs are working and there are bigger problems.
In most cases, yes, they do work a lot harder than the average worker. Running a business is hard work and comes with a lot of stress and sacrifices. How many CEOs do you know personally? I’m sure if you asked a CEO where it’s like to run a company I’m sure you’ll find it harder than you think. Posts like these are mostly driven by the politics of envy and resentment. I can’t believe I’m being down voted for stating the truth.
I don’t deny that running a business is hard. I know some business owners, and I’m a manager myself so I have experience delegating to others. But I also think running a kitchen during lunch rush is hard, or finishing that presentation in time is hard, or juggling three different job responsibilities is hard, or repairing complex machinery is hard. I don’t think CEOs work 400 times harder than these people, or anyone for that matter.
Oh, oh. I can pitch in! I’ve met 5, personally. Every single one of them inherited the position from their parents or had a head start by having wealthy parents.
Out of the ones that inherited the jobs: 1 is the owner of a small hotel for which the general manager and the rest of the staff do all the work and have all the stress. She’s 35-ish and hasn’t worked a day in the last 4 years.
Second one is top 100 richest person in the country and she has directors and managers doing all the actual work and she just supervises them. Her biggest stress is her younger brother that actually works and is trying to take her businesses away from her. Instead of… you know… sharing and being stress-free.
Out of the “self made” ones: one somehow managed under communism, at 36, to be the chief of some government branch. Travelled a lot and shit. At the time, in 1990, he had a house, a car, 1000$ in savings (average, not minimum, salary at the time was 150$). And he got a 20k $ mortgage to start his own business, so that couldn’t have been a cheap house. (Google says you could buy a 3 bedroom apartment in the center of the capital for 20k)
Other ones are just more of the same. Parents sent them to study abroad, get a bunch of experience, then they came back, used money most people don’t have to start businesses and now at 40 they don’t need to work anymore.
So…yeah… stop licking their butts, please.
Oh, and forgot to mention that 2 of them went to prison for corruption and tax evasion. One of them also beat his wife, but she didn’t file any charges afaik cause she was just as crazy as him.
Oh, and he offered me a job abroad, promised to pay my rent for half a year to help me get settled. He fired me after a month when he realized he didn’t need me anymore and let me fend for myself. Ofc he also only paid a month of rent. So… yeah jobless and homeless in a foreign country was fun.
Agreed. It **should **be a meritocracy. However, for anyone who has worked a job for more than a few years, it’s obvious that it often doesn’t work that way.
