THE INDEPENDENT: A new investigation shows pay inequality is accelerating in Britain, with top bosses set to earn 215 times the average wage by 2020. It also demolishes the arguments they put forward to support their astonishing incomesBritain's bosses are pocketing an increasing portion of the nation's income, according to a report from the High Pay Commission to be published tomorrow. As the majority of people in the country face the largest drop in household income for three decades, a tiny minority at the top are awarding themselves a growing slice of the UK's wealth.
The top one thousandth of the British working population currently receives 5 per cent of the country's earnings, a ratio equivalent to that in the 1940s, the report says. If these trends continue, income for the highest paid will account for 14 per cent of the country's total by 2030 – the same proportion as in 1900.
The independent commission was set up in November to scrutinise the rising pay of those at the top. Its first report concludes that during the decade Labour was in power, income at the top grew by 64.2 per cent, while that of an average earner increased by 7.2 per cent over the same period.
The study accuses businesses and governments of having "failed to tackle the dramatic growth in pay at the top" despite growing public anger at the gulf between soaring rewards for executives and tightening circumstances for the rest of the country.
The conclusions will be a blow to David Cameron's attempts to emphasise that "we're all in this together". The Government has appeared flat-footed in its attempts to persuade senior executives and bankers to curb the pay and bonuses they award themselves, particularly as the effects of the recession are still being keenly felt by the rest of the country. » | Emily Dugan | Sunday, May 15, 2011
