I normally try to steer
clear of controversial issues. Everyone
has their own opinion and I try to respect that even though sometimes I feel
and think quite the opposite. Each has a
right to their own ideas and thinking.
But today on the news my attention was caught by the news that another
highly paid boss has resigned from his post as shareholders at the AGM showed
their disapproval at his large increase in salary and bonus. It is not my intention to go into long
discussion about CEOs high salaries or whether or not they should receive such
enormous bonuses. What really caught my
attention was the BBC's Business Editor, Robert Peston when he said that the
average increase in salary of the CEOs of top firms in the past year was 11%
(even though they already receive a 7 figure salary). This is in stark contrast to the shareholders
income from shares over the same length of time that is actually down 7% while
the average wage increase for an ordinary worker was only 1%.
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| Robert Peston |
The government keeps
insisting that we're all in it together!
But somehow people aren't convinced when many workers have lost their
jobs because of firms cutting back, others have had a pay freeze for a few
years with no seeming improvement in the foreseeable future and very few others
have received an increase beyond 1or 2%.
Somehow when the big boss gets 11% it doesn't seem as though we really
are all in it together. However you try
to reconcile the numbers, unless Maths has changed drastically from when I went
to school, 11% is an awful lot more than 1% or even -7%! And try telling someone who is now unemployed
because of the financial crisis that 11% increase is a fair price to pay for a
CEO.
 |
| Recent unrest in Spain |
We are certainly living
in interesting times when you see in many countries how the ordinary men and
women are rising up to let their opinions be heard. It is not just the Arab Spring that happened
but now we are seeing the European countries of Greece, France and Spain
showing their disapproval of their leaders and here in the UK people are
letting their voices be heard about what they think of the decisions of those
in power.
2 comments:
Interesting times indeed. It is certainly time for people to be held to account. It is intriguing that after all this time those at the top still don't get why people are bothered and their actions are merely stirring the problems.
On the flip side to this disapproval though is how much are people willing to work together for the future and how much is it just about trying to maintain a lifestyle they now lead? That will be interesting to discover.
Yes I know what you mean. It's ok to protest but what are you going to put in its place? After the 'revolution', what then? It is interesting to see what's happened in Iceland but they never show that on the news.
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