10
April
2013
Bosses enjoyed a 15 per cent pay rise last year as ordinary workers continue to suffer real-term pay cuts, researched revealed today. A "bonus boom" topped up CEOs' basic pay rise of 1.8 per cent to a massive 15.8 per cent, according to the Chartered Institute of Management (CIM). Most workers are struggling to win a below-inflation 1 per cent pay rise.
Trade unions tore into CEOs' pay rises and the CIM weren't too impressed either. "It's hard to believe that company directors and CEOs have seen such a big leap in bonus payments when the UK's economic performance remains so sluggish," CIM head Ann Francke said. "If organisations aren't performing, leaders shouldn't get these bumper rewards."
The survey of 43,000 executives in 180 organisations showed that CEOs' pay increased five times as much as that of the average executive in the past 12 months. And the average CEO is taking home almost 20 times as much as in 1973 when the salary survey was first launched. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the survey will "only fuel the shop-floor anger that is building up the pressure for a general strike. "While Britain's boardrooms are awash with cash and top bosses' pay and bonuses are up in the double-digits, millions of working people are facing an all-out assault on their living standards in the name of austerity."
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady that the huge squeeze on families' incomes is not being shared by top bosses "who have huge bonuses to cushion them against any drop in their living standards. "While real wages continue to fall for working people, the cosy pay clubs setting salary and bonus payouts for top executives are awarding payouts that bear little relation to company performance and that only serve to widen the gap between the richest and the poorest in the UK."
