Bosses pay in the UK is 86 times that of their ordinary workers is this fair?

Answer 1

I seriously doubt the truth of that.

Most small businesses cover wages, rents, rates, taxes and utilities and creditors.

Once all that's dealt with, there's nowhere near 86 times the ordinary wage left over. Sometimes, bosses are lucky to collect the same or twice the wage of the average worker, even though they have all the responsibility and liability.

You should check out your facts before making a sweeping statement like that, or quote your source.

Answer 2

In Germany, there is a limit on the salary of the highest paid members of staff; I think its set at 20 x the lowest rate of pay.
So if the bosses want a pay rise, then profits have to go up because the lowest paid members of staff also have to get a pay rise.
And Germany is not a poverty ridden nation, so putting wages up to decent level has not bankrupted their country.
The overall standard of living is higher, although taxes and utilities are also more expensive.

In Japan, bosses cut their own pay first if a company has a bad year. Plus they have long term job security.

It can be done, but there is no will in British industry to change things for the better. The initiative has to come from management. And that won't happen.
If the Govt forces legislation through, it'll be just another thing to complain about - the nanny interfering state. There's already complaints and dire warnings about setting the minimum wage at a fiver an hour.

Answer 3

I agree that bosses, especially the most senior, have special skills ( so many work long hours because they are the only person in that location with the skills); however they are all part of a "team" which produces a "product". If you ask yourself if the boss contributes 86 times as much as the humblest employee, you would probably decide that he doesn't. If the toilet cleaners all took a week off the largest Company would grind to a halt because it would be breaching health and safety legislation. Toilet cleaners are key workers in this situation.From this you conclude that a boss should be paid more because it has taken time to learn the special skills which he has; but 86 times more is "Greed is Good" and pure "Fat Cattery"
Keep Smiling "Hogshead"
Best regards from the "Mac"

Answer 4

I think that some should get paid more, but not 86 times more even the best most qualified boss doesn't deserve that.

Some people get the position of 'supervisor' or 'manager' without having the necessary skills or qualifications.

For example: A 26 year old woman gets promoted to supervisor, her qualifications are in hairdressing and she has been working in an office environment for approx 6 years. Another woman the same age has relevant qualifications in her office job, has been working in an office for approx 9 years and has been head hunted by a previous employer. But no promotion!

By my experience those who can do the job well stay doing the job and those that can't do it that well get promoted so they can't keep messing it up.

Also, where women are concerned those with a pretty face and a size 10 but no qualifications will get more pay than a plainer woman whose a size 18 with qualifications.

Answer 5

How many bosses earning 86 times the pay of their workers?
In a normal company, pay differentials will not be that high, unless you are comparing the company directors and the toilet cleaners.
The guy at the top will generally be well educated, an entrepeneur, and a workaholic who has worked his way up from very low pay

When you are prepared to go to uni for three years, with a negative income.......when you are prepared to work 7 am - 7 pm six days a week......when you are able to consitantly come up with ideas and solutions....then you have a right to complain about unfair and unequal pay.

Answer 6

Businesses don't pay bosses more for fun, they expect a return on there investment. They hire people who are extraordinary and have rare skills to provide extra profit.

Businesses by the very nature that they are profit making enterprises would obviously prefer to be able to pay as little salary as possible for every one of there employees including there bosses.

If the labour market had a huge supply of people and there were few jobs you could bet that over a period of time that salaries would decrease.

We would see the same effects we are seeing in globalisation with all manufacturing going to China and outsourced services being delivered from India.

In fact I would argue that very few corporate type jobs are safe from the effects of globalisation.

Fair is not really a business concept, business really talk and focus about profit as I am sure you are well aware of !

Answer 7

Theoretically we are all paid what we are worth to the company in terms of what we produce.

As someone has pointed out, a woman with good looks but not so highly qualified get better wages than a woman with not so good looks but better qualified.

From experience on the job market I can say that the first salary you earn often sets the standard for your future salaries; even increments are capped by %. It is difficult to break from this cycle, even if your direct bosses agree you are underpaid.

I know for fact that many management positions are obtained via word of mouth, recommendations, without competition. If this were done when projects were allocated, the process would have been deemed unfair. But for jobs, this is what happens. So as long as you know the right people, you have a major advantage. (Of course, if the right people know your father or your mother... it's even moreof an advantage).

What I am illustrating are the realities of the labour market, not some theoretical airy fairy castle in the air. In reality the labour market is very different from the smooth theoretical model.

One other irregularity of the labour market is the 'principal-agent' problem, or if you prefer something that approaches class-conflict. Who decided how much a boss gets paid? Is it you the ordinary shareholder? Is it you, the average worker? Is it you the middle manager with pipe dreams? Or is it the bosses or the ex-bosses who now sit on the boards?

People who decide on salaries of bosses have the incentive to pay as much as they can simply because by doing so they ensure their own luxurious lifestyle. If they leave company X, given that the standard has been set, they will get similar pay packages from company Y. And the beauty of it is that nobody can stop them.

This is the principal-agent problem because while bosses are supposed to maximise shareholder value, since shareholders can barely hold them accountable, and since for many large companies the majority sharegolders are other large firms themselves, the bosses can take care of their own interests (as agents by paying themselves as much as possible) rather than taking care of shareholder interest (who are the principals).

Simply compare the earnings per share of a PLC with the salaries and benefits paid to the Board of Directors, and you will see what I am talking about.

Now to the loaded question... Is it fair?

Personally I think not, because the labour market is not as open as it protrays itself, and there is something really close to class-differences. Basically it is veyr difficult for people to break the 'glass ceiling'. The true glass ceiling has nothing to do with gender, but with who you know.

The real question, to me is, if we think it is unfair, what can we do about it? It is very simple. True power lies with us, the consumers. We are the ones who spend and whose money gets channelled to the bosses. What we should do is find out the wage differentials in the companies whose products we consume, and stop buying if we think the bosses get paid too much. If enough of us do that, we can change things.

True the first to suffer will be the workers, as bosses try to 'cut costs' to deal with 'the new market conditions'. But eventually as the large shareholders stop making money, the differential will have to drop.

As a final word, I'd like to point out that the wage differential in the US is generally larger than in the UK, but smaller in Scandinavian countries where there is more concern for social well-being in general.

Answer 8

No, where there is alot of responsibilty in the bosses job you expect them to be paid more but thats far to high! The workers are the ones putting the real hard work in, companies should value their staff more to keep them they would be stuffed without the ordinary workers.

Answer 9

in the uk, the poor atre looked after with tax credits and the rich get richer. its the middle class workers police fire nurses etc that are left behind and find it hard to even pay rent bills etc. the government knows this. the fire service have been on strike but as for the police,they are unable to strike. its illegal.

its a type of comunisim. without the dictatorship, but watch out is coming. you already have to watch what you say.

Answer 10

sure it's fair, but I wouldn't mind just earning average earnings, which are now over £30,000.

When I think of what we paid a certain England manager, for no success!!! and the amount we pay prima donna so called celebrities, the bosses of big companies deserve all they get

The boss is the one who takes the risks, makes the decisions, makes it works for everyone, and keeps lots of others in Jobs, the boss gets it wrong everyone suffers.

It was bad enough just being the manager of 2 different departments, the stress was starting to kill me.