FTSE chief executive pay: How long would it take you to earn as much as these top 10 highest earners? August 17, 2015 The pay packets of the FTSE 100's top bosses has fallen in real terms, with chief executives taking home around £80,000 less than previous years, adjusting for inflation. You probably won't see any of them cutting back, though. That's a drop in the ocean of their annual income from salaries, bonuses, share awards and other remuneration, which [...]
Reforming UK executive pay is tortuous, but worthwhile May 27, 2015 Like electing a boss of Fifa whose surname isn’t Blatter or extracting an apology from Thomas Cook, reforming executive pay in the UK is a tortuous process. Vince Cable, the last Business Secretary, had a decent stab at it, introducing a binding vote on pay policies which yielded initial dividends in recalcitrant boardrooms. [...]
UBS shareholders to hold vote on executive pay and bonuses April 1, 2015 SHAREHOLDERS of Swiss investment bank UBS will be able to vote on the pay of its directors and top executives at its annual general meeting (AGM) in May. The company said shareholders would be able to vote on variable compensation – mostly bonuses – for the main executives in 2014, and regular pay for them [...]
Executive pay: Why I long for the restrained days of Cedric the Pig January 20, 2015 Executive pay is back in the news. The Goldman Sachs pay pot of $12.7bn (£8.3bn) has been prominent. German executive pay has overtaken that in the UK for the first time. Top management seems to have no shame. They get some bad publicity today, but the fat cheque remains safely in the bank. How one [...]
German executive pay races past the UK for the first time January 6, 2015 Germany has raced past the UK to become Europe's capital of well-paid executives, according to a study of over 500 companies in five EU countries. German chief executives earned on average £2.69m in 2013 compared to £2.66m paid to their counterparts in the FTSE 100. Germany's captains of industry benefitted from long-term pay incentives at [...]
As BG reduces Helge Lund’s pay deal, should shareholders press firms to cut executive pay? December 1, 2014 Vince Cable, secretary of state for business, innovation, and skills, says Yes. The decision by BG Group to revise the package offered to Helge Lund is correct. The previous offer made a mockery of the Directors’ Remuneration Policy approved by the firm’s shareholders earlier this year. I called for shareholders to intervene and they did. [...]
Forget bonus caps: Why real executive pay reform must tackle short-termism September 9, 2014 EXECUTIVE pay is a high-profile topic which almost everyone has an opinion about, and many believe the entire system is broken. But despite being well-intentioned, many suggested reforms may not be targeting the elements of pay that are most critical for shareholder value and society. Much of the debate is on what I call a [...]
Wandsworth council has most staff earning over £100k even as public sector executive pay falls August 4, 2014 Executive pay in the public sector continued to fall last year, with councils paying their top staff five per cent less than the year before. According to new research from the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), 2,181 local government employees were paid over £100,000 last year compared to 2,295 the year before. In London, the [...]
How executive pay regulations can increase inequality – not reduce it May 7, 2014 IN JUST two months, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century has taken the world by storm. In it, he argues that substantial increases in inequality can only be reversed through government intervention. Piketty’s own suggestion is a 2 per cent annual wealth tax, and income tax rates of up to 80 per cent. In [...]
Standard Life backs BP executive pay for second time in nine years April 10, 2014 MAJOR BP shareholder Standard Life yesterday said it would back the oil company’s executive pay report for just the second time in nine years, after it called on the remuneration committee to beef up its targets. “Over the last year we have engaged with the company about our concerns and I’d like to place on [...]