Today's
Financial Times reports the results of an
Incomes Data Services survey of
FTSE100 chief executives' pay. The
report begins:
FTSE 100 chief executives have received inflation-busting pay rises averaging 7.4 per cent over the past year, almost making up for a 29 per cent drop in their bonuses, according to a report published Monday. Incomes Data Services, the pay research group, said company chiefs’ salaries were growing twice as fast as the pay of shop-floor workers. Their total remuneration fell just 1.5 per cent in spite of collapsing profits in one of the deepest postwar recessions, it said. Chief executives were still earning, on average, as much as in 2006, when the economy was booming".
It is worth bearing in mind that these are the pay rises granted, in the main, 18 months ago - ie in April/May 2008. This is due to the lag between the pay rises being implemented and the annual report publication dates. The pay rise awarded in April/May 2009, many of which were not awarded due to pay freezes being imposed (according to the commentary in the remuneration reports), will not be reported until March/April 2010 when the new annual reports are released.
ReplyDeleteThat reports of this nature are being fundamentally misunderstood and mis-reported is actually contributing to the ongoing ratchetting of executive pay, as executives point to an upward trend in such surveys.