Recession, what recession? Top bosses' pay rockets

[dutchman]

The pay of Britain's top company bosses has soared still higher, rising by more than five times that of ordinary workers, who have seen a decline in wages in real terms.



The total pay package for the typical FTSE 100 chief executive hit £3m for the first time in 2011 – an average rise of 8.5 per cent – despite it being a brutal year for investors.

The average pay rise for workers nationally was 1.6 per cent, less than half the pace of inflation, placing pressure on household disposable incomes and endangering growth prospects. The Chancellor, George Osborne, faces calls from businesses and the City to draw up a new growth plan when he returns from his summer holiday, and to reverse the Government's hard line on deficit reduction.

To add to investors' grievances, the FTSE 100 fell 6.5 per cent during 2011, leaving them considerably worse off than chief executives. The new research will add to the anger at boardroom pay that exploded earlier this year in the "shareholder spring" – the most febrile season of company AGMs in memory, with investors heckling directors and voting down their bonus packages. The scalps of three unloved bosses were claimed: at Britain's largest insurance company, Aviva, the drugs giant AstraZeneca and the publisher Trinity Mirror. Other firms to feel the heat included Barclays (the board was told it was "a disgrace to capitalism"), the advertising giant WPP, car dealer Pendragon, the miners Xstrata and Central Rand Gold, the oil explorer Cairn Energy, M&S, Premier Food and the hedge fund Man Group.

[Spuffler]

Perhaps they'll soon do what the South Africans do, and shoot anyone who complains.......