Sunday Telegraph: Anger as top bosses pay keeps rising

24 May 2009

Sarah Wilson

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Diversity Divergence: Shareholders Steadfast Amid Pervasive Political Posturing

FTSE 100 bosses are paying themselves "footballers' salaries" out of proportion with the rest of the market according to a report from pay consultants MM&K and governance group Manifest.

The increase in total pay for chief executives and senior directors of the UK's largest companies is "on a curve to infinity" as management fight to catch up with their better paid peers from the US. The report says that average pay for FTSE 100 chief executives last year was £2.6m, a 7pc increase on 2007. Pay for FTSE 250 bosses was less than half that amount at £1.2m, 5% up on the previous year.

By: Jonathan Russell,
Sunday Telegraph, 24 May 2009

Wave of pay rows is an urgent wake-up call

One of the reasons investors have become so angry in recent months is that many companies are paying mere lip service to the notion of serious engagement with their owners. As my colleague, Jonathan Russell, reports on page two today, the pace at which pay increases are being enjoyed by the bosses of FTSE 100 companies is outstripping their peers elsewhere, even as most companies are being forced to consider cutting dividends or confronting freefalling profits.

By Mark Kleinman
Sunday Telegraph, 24 May 2009

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