Fat Cat Thursday

On the third working day of the year, spare a moment to think of Britain’s fat cats, who have now earned more than the annual salary of an average UK worker.

Today (January 4) is “Fat Cat Thursday”, the day when the income of the country’s top bosses surpasses £28,758 – an amount that takes most people a full year to earn.

Unite said the figure shows that the excesses of Britain’s boardrooms are alive and well, despite Theresa May’s tough talk to crack down on “corporate greed”.

The mean yearly pay of chief executives in FTSE 100 firms was ÂŁ4.5m in 2017, according to the joint analysis by the High Pay Centre and the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development.

That’s a whopping 120 times more than an average full-time employee earns over the same period.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the pay disparity between top executives and typical workers is “scandalous” and shows the government has done nothing to curb damaging corporate excess.

He said, “Theresa May talks tough about ‘burning injustices’ and ‘corporate greed’, but does little to nothing about tackling them, which begs the question of whose side she is on?”

Turner pointed to high levels of wage inequality and unfair and insecure work and demanded action to rein in executive pay and “introduce fairness and transparency into Britain’s workplaces”.

As well as including worker representatives on boards, Turner called for a clamp down on exploitative work practises – such as bogus self-employment and zero hour contracts – and the strengthening of trade union rights to organise and bargain for better wages on behalf of workers.

“These grossly excessive and unjustifiable gaps between the fat cats at the top and the rest of the workforce do nothing for morale in the workplace and need to end,” Turner said.

“If Britain’s boardrooms want workers to help make them profits, it is high time they paid them fairly and started acting responsibly. If they won’t, then the government’s duty is to force them to do so.”

Unite also criticised a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which claims that rising wages will lead employers to cut jobs and invest in automation.

According to the big business friendly report, which Unite dismissed as “propaganda for bad employers”, increasing the minimum wage could encourage firms to replace workers with machines that don’t need to be paid.

The TUC also slammed the report, saying minimum wage rises have gone “hand-in-hand” with increased employment.

Congress called for a ÂŁ10 minimum wage, along with investment in training and infrastructure, to produce a modern economy that works for everyone.

“(The IFS report) is just propaganda for bad employers who want an excuse to suppress wages,” Unite executive officer Sharon Graham said.

“I don’t suppose that economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies are asking for pay cuts to protect themselves from robots,” she added. “They know that ‘Industry 4.0’ is going to generate enormous amounts of wealth and we need automaton to deliver for society not just bigger profits. Why not demand a shorter working week and a decent retirement?

“The IFS seems to think that it should be just like the 1980’s. Then we lost jobs and wages to technology while boardrooms profited. But this time workers can and should get their share. Of course, the best way to defend your job and get the most out of automation is also the best way to keep your pay above the minimum wage – get organised in a union.”