This website houses research publications, blogs, information about our latest events, and related media articles. Subscribe for occasional updates on our work.
PAY COUNTER
Since 1 January 2020 the average FTSE 100 CEO has earned:
£2,894,333
A think tank for fairer pay, worker voice and better business
This website houses research publications, blogs, information about our latest events, and related media articles. Subscribe for occasional updates on our work.
PAY COUNTER
Since 1 January 2020 the average FTSE 100 CEO has earned:
£2,894,333
COVID-19
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought huge changes to work, pay and businesses’ role in society. Read our analysis of what’s been happening and where next.
Featured
07.10.20
Welcome to our new website
A new website and a new look High Pay Centre
Latest updates
21.10.20
Billionaires get richer – but capping top pay could raise incomes for low and middle earners
Does the Covid-19 crisis call for more radical action to address the inequalities it's perpetuating?
Our campaigns
Worker representation
Worker representation on boards and remuneration committees should be mandatory for all major companies. Worker representation can help to ensure that the interests and views of workers are taken into account on issues including pay and conditions. It can improve decision making by increasing diversity of thought and experience. In countries such as Germany where these policies already exist, there is lower inequality and evidence of companies having a better record of acting in the public interest.
Purpose beyond profit
There is an urgent need for us to move from a stakeholder to a shareholder model of capitalism. From Davos to the Business Roundtable, some of the world’s most powerful businesspeople are also calling for this. This now needs to move from action to words. In the UK we advocate reforming the Companies Act to change the responsibilities of directors from being legally required to prioritise shareholders to one where the interests of workers, consumers, wider society and the environment are given equal priority.
Trade Union Rights
There is strong evidence of a correlation between the strength of trade unions in a country and lower inequality. In the UK the gap between the lowest and highest paid at listed companies began to grow rapidly in the 1980’s with the introduction of anti-union legislation and the decline of trade union membership which has followed. This trend only began to slow down following the 2008 global economic crisis. While trade union membership in the UK has increased in the past three years, levels remain low compared to comparable European countries. We believe that expanding trade union and collective bargaining coverage is crucial to tackling the twin scourge of low pay and excessive executive pay.
Recent Media Coverage
- Bosses took pay cut to get firms through Covid crisis, but they’re already on full salaries again…even at firms facing enormous losses like easyJet
Alex Lawson, This is Money, 10 Oct 2020 - Over half of Britons support the introduction of a maximum wage and a £100,000 cap would hurt less than 3% of earners, think tanks claim
Harry Wise, This is Money, 08 Oct 2020 - Super-rich now EVEN RICHER with wealth soaring 25% to £7.8TRILLION during Covid as number of billionaires hits new high
Henry Holloway, The Sun, 08 Oct 2020 - Cap excessive pay to tackle UK jobs crisis and inequality, urges thinktank
Mattha Busby, The Guardian, 08 Oct 2020 - The World’s Richest People’s Wealth Increased By £7.8 Trillion In 2020
Simon Catling, Lad Bible, 07 Oct 2020
