Bankers Pay

Not for the first time the announcement of another huge Bankers bonus payment has sparked furious response and condemnation from a wide range of organisations. The latest award is for the Head of state owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Stephen Hester.

The Bank is 83% owned by the taxpayer; yes that’s you and me. Mr Hester is already receiving a salary in excess of 1 million pounds so can hardly be described as “on the bread line”.

David Cameron is believed to have demanded” that any bonus should be below the symbolic 1 million pound level.”  I think this just shows how out of touch he is with real life and how ordinary people see these types of wage rewards. They see them as unnecessary, extravagant and obscene. What’s wrong with him just getting a salary like the rest of us?

I think Mr Cameron should tell the board of RBS to think again and tell Mr Hester that his salary should be enough in this difficult economic climate.  The problem with this is that the board of RBS are all in the same boat, many are members of other companies Board of Directors, all scratching each others backs.  

If Mr Hester is not happy with just a salary he can always leave. I am sure there are plenty of good bankers out there who could do an equally good job. How difficult must it be to sell off some businesses, make thousands redundant, and watch the share price fall to all time low? Maybe I should apply? 

Executive Greed

A report released last Friday by Income Data Services shows that salaries, bonuses and benefits of Directors at Britain’s top businesses have risen by 49% in the last year. The BBC have stated that “this takes the average pay for a director of a FTSE 100 company to just short of 2.7 million pounds”. At a time when Middle Income earners are being squeezed and those on lower pay are just being battered, it is little wonder that comments like “obscene” and “outrageous” appear in many newspaper reports.

Many of the executives of these top companies sit on each other’s board of directors – little wonder that they all reward themselves massive pay increases. They probably think it’s quite normal. One is only left to wonder how they are allowed to do this. Many company shares are trading lower than in recent years, with no dividend; just what are these Directors doing to earn these rewards? Many Pension Funds are large shareholders and they are suffering from the current economic climate, why can’t they influence Directors pay?

At a time of increasing prices on food and energy, shrinking household budgets, it doesn’t feel fair – does it?

It sounds a bit hollow when we are told by Cameron, Osborne and Clegg “We are all in this together!”

llr George Crane