10 signatures reached
To: Treasury
Fair pay for all
Introduce new legislation to force all UK registered companies to publish at Companies House the ratios of pay, from the lowest paid person in the company to the median pay, and to the highest paid person in the company. This would include all bonuses and benefits, share options and shares.
Why is this important?
Just as it is important to know where our consumer goods come from, how they have been produced, the safety of these goods, their quality, the contents of our food, so is the fairness of staff pay. The recent economic crises have been driven by the scandals in the financial services, their remuneration has not been effectively criticised and curbed by the share holders and there is not enough transparency to allow a public debate about the fairness of pay in these service industries and in the general economy. What people earn should be transparent in order to allow public scrutiny over the fairness of pay. The same applies to other industries: supermarkets, multinationals, entertainment industries, like the BBC, sports and charities.The highest earners seem to believe in their entitlement to an ever larger slice of the national earnings, and even convince the public that this is reasonable. A public debate about fair pay is what is needed. Please note that the figures on income distribution published by the UK government exclude information from the financial services. That is why these services should be included in these new legal requirements.
In the long run these data can be used to measure the relative fairness of companies, leading to league tables much like league tables for schools and universities, or leading to a Charter mark like Fair Trade or labelling of food items in the supermarket. This could also be rolled out internationally leading to fairer pay in the world.
