Boardroom pay soars despite fragile economy and prospect of strikes - The Guardian

• 
  Simon Bowers
  


• 
  guardian.co.uk,
  
  Wednesday
  16 June 2010 19.42 BST


• Article
  history

Annual bonuses in Britain's top boardrooms have risen by
almost a quarter while basic salaries have increased by 7% despite the
fragile economic recovery and the growing prospect of widespread
industrial action over shopfloor pay levels, according to research by pay
monitoring group Income Data Services.

Paul Kenny, general
secretary of the GMB general union, said the dislocation between what
top bosses took home and what they urged their shopfloor workers to
accept was stark. "We have consistently said that appeals to the elite
who run our industries and commercial companies to exercise restraint on
their pay is a complete waste of time. As this survey demonstrates, the
only solution is to use the tax system to take the money off them."

Annual
bonuses for FTSE 100 executives, which had fallen 30% a year ago, have
bounced back 22.5% in the second half of 2009 IDS research found. The
average bonus returned above the half-million mark to £558,918. An
average basic salary pay rise of 7% for FTSE 100 executives was
highlighted by IDS as latest figures from the Office for National
Statistics, released today , showed private sector basic pay rose by
just 1.2% for the three months to April to £419 a week.

Steve
Tatton, editor of the IDS's Executive Compensation Review 2010, said:
"It appears... full article at link above