The Financial Times reports today that FTSE100 directors gave themselves on average a 55% rise last year. Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, said the pay packages were a “moral outrage”, and TUC general secretary Bendan Barber said it blew away “any claim that we are all in this together.” The contrast with public service pay freezes and half a million redundancies, benefits cuts and attacks on the welfare state could not be more stark.

Yesterday, the Morning Star reported on another report by IDS (Income Data Services) on which the FT report was based. This revealed that pay deals covering 1.5 million workers were worth between just 2 and 3 percent, compared with RPI of 4.6 percent — a real reduction of around two percent. Continue reading →