Wednesday 23 November 2011

Fat cats and fairer pay differentials

Councils have seen their budgets reduced by 20-30%, pensions are losing value, the economy is in a mess, millions are living in fuel poverty, nurseries, community centres and libraries are closing and yet Britain's top bosses have awarded themselves an incredible 49% pay rise.

The average salary of the UK's most senior company executives is now £2.7m while the UK's average salary is just £24,000. A tiny minority continue to be rewarded for failure.

David Cameron said the report was "concerning". It's more than concerning, Mr Cameron, it's wrong and makes a nonsense of your cuts agenda. It's examples of corporate greed such as this that prompted Jenny Jones, Green Party mayoral candidate to campaign for London to become a ‘Fair Pay City'.

As Jenny herself states: "During Boris Johnson's Mayorship the number of people within the GLA group earning more than 10 times the London Living Wage (£8.30 an hour) has risen by 56% (from 62 to 97). The Chief Executive of Crossrail, Rob Holden, earns £857,134. That's about 55 times the London Living Wage!

A 10:1 maximum pay ratio would seriously reduce the pay gap in our city. It is unacceptable to use the economic crisis to defend paying workers less than the amount needed to support a family at the same as paying out colossal salaries to chief executives.

At Brighton & Hove Council, which is run by the Greens, the differential between the highest paid and the lowest paid has been reduced to 10:1. Following calls by the Camden Green Party for the same at Camden Council, our new Chief Executive will get a basic salary of 10 times the lowest paid staffer.

There is a Greener fairer alternative.

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