Big Firm Bonuses Back to pre-Crisis Level
Bonuses to executive directors are back to pre-crisis levels in the U.K. Though the pace of increases is slowed, the levels of payment have reached almost pre-crisis levels. A business advisory firm, Deloitte, conducted a survey to find the developments occurred in pays and bonuses after the crisis. The survey revealed that pay increases for the executives might be history for now.
The BBC News quoted Stephen Cahill of Deloitte as saying, “Last year we saw a very large number of companies freezing executive salaries, but at the time it was difficult to predict whether this was a one-off. Now it appears that the years of executive salaries increasing at rates far in excess of inflation and the increase in average earnings are, at least for the moment, well and truly over.”
Toppers at Top
The survey found that the average bonuses for executive directors of FTSE 100 companies were equal to 100% of their basic salary for the year. It said the top 30 companies increased the bonuses to their executives by 140%. Coming to mid-sized FTSE 250 companies, one in Seven paid no bonus to their bosses. For the present year also the difference between the trends of bonuses in FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies are expected to continue, while for the bosses of FTSE 100 companies, the bonuses are expected to be greater than the last year in the present year; they would be lower for FTSE 250 companies.
Bonus vs. Austerity
While European Countries are burdened with high levels of debts and deficits and their governments are already on the path of aggressive austerity measures and spending cuts, trade unions are giving warning signals that the workers’ pay and pensions could not be touched. ‘Trade Union Congress’ has warned it is going to resort to joint industrial actions along with other unions, if the government intends to reduce services to workers. They don’t see the austerity measures as temporary to cut the deficit, but as a rollback of the welfare-state system, undermining workers’ rights.
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