Whoever would have thought that a long-established private sector statistical organisation could be an agent of revolution.
OK, that’s a bit of my favourite hyperbole, but Incomes Data Services achieved, if not revolution then at least a tipping point last week with the revelation that the average chief executive of a blue chip company enjoyed a 49% pay rise last year.
Part of me wants to make at least a half-hearted defence of 7- or 8-figure salaries for those who hold such positions of responsibility, to point out that it was the average pay of all chief executives which rose by 43%, the ‘average chief executive’ got rather less than this, & so he will feel poor in today’s London, quite likely to be unable to afford a proper house in the most exclusive areas of Belgravia, Knightsbridge or Hampstead which are populated by oligarchs, dictators & foreign squillionaires …
But no. I shall just sit back & enjoy the stunned silence & the squirming from the usual suspects who used to leap to explain the absolute necessity, in a global economy, for the payment of such rewards & compensations.
