A poll by the High Pay Center, a thinktank that campaigns for fairer pay for employees, found that 63% of Britons said managers should not be paid more than 10 times the pay of lower or middle class workers. A survey of 1,104 adults in the UK found that only 3% of people thought it was appropriate for executives to be paid more than 50 times the company’s average salary. In fact, the bosses of the 350 largest companies in the UK stock market are paid 53 times more than the average employee, according to a separate survey by the High Pay Center published in December 2020. A total of 43 bosses of FTSE 350 companies received more than 100 times more as the average worker. Luke Hildyard, director of the High Pay Center, said the research revealed “the extent to which the lives of those at the top and everyone else are so far apart.” He added: “This is probably not a healthy development. “Britain’s largest employers spend a significant amount of their budget on remunerating a small number of top executives. Redirecting some of this money to low- and middle-income workers would be a good way to improve living standards and tackle the cost-of-living crisis, but it would require policymakers and business leaders to be a little more open-minded. on whether the top really needs to be paid that much. “ Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca, the pharmaceutical company that makes the Oxford vaccine Covid-19, was the highest paid CEO of the FTSE 100 in 2020, receiving ,5 15.5 million. The other winners were Experian’s Brian Cassin 10 10.3 million, CRH’s Albert Manifold 10 10 million, Reckitt Benckiser’s Laxman Narasimhan 9 9.2 million and Berkeley’s Rob Perrins, which raised εκατο 8 million in 2020 (the last full data available for the year). On an hourly basis, the average FTSE 100 CEO earns more money in four days than the average UK employee earns over the year. Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, said: “All the workforce deserves to be involved in the success of a company, not just those in the boardroom. But over the years, executives’ salaries have outpaced those of other employees – and now they are at stratospheric levels. “It’s time to set a maximum ratio between the highest income in each company and the other employees. There should be employees in the remuneration committees, in order to establish decisions in the interest of the entire workforce. And incentive programs should be open to all employees on the same terms, instead of just giving big bonuses to executives. “ The High Pay Center poll also found that many respondents thought that policy measures aimed at a more even distribution of wealth would be more likely to raise living standards than those aimed at boosting economic growth. Subscribe to the Business Email daily email or follow the Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk More than half (56%) of respondents said that policies to ensure a more even distribution of wealth would be the best way to improve living standards for those in the middle and lower, while 33% said that measures that increase economic growth would be better. Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB union, which represents 600,000 workers, said: “The richest rake on a fortune as the average person struggles to make ends meet is not fair. And the British public agrees. “We are facing a cost of living crisis. The high salaries of managers are a kick in the teeth for the employees who make the profits from which the richest people benefit. “We need decent increases in workers’ wages – and the GMB is fighting for that in jobs across the country.”
