Where the parties stand on excess pay
With manifestos starting to dribble out for Election 2010 here in the UK, what do the parties have to offer to curb excess boardroom pay?
The Labour Party
In the public sector - where the government has direct control, of course - there will not be a pay cap as such, but salaries over £150,000 will need to be signed off by a minister.
The number of people this will impact on is likely to be relatively small, but saving money isn't the concern here. It is making sure that, for example, NHS Trust CEOs, with an average salary of around £150,000, do not become "aliens" compared to the people working for them.
Many CEOs in the private sector wouldn't get out of bed for £150,000. But the government has no direct control here. Still, the Labour manifesto makes no mention of a high pay commission, for example.
The banks are targeted, with bonuses' tied in to both lending and stability.
"there will be consequences for executive remuneration if [lending] targets are not met."
"We will give the FSA additional powers if necessary to constrain and quash executive remuneration where it is a source of risk and instability.
If there is evidence of bonus rules being evaded, we will act."
There is no mention of salaries elsewhere in the private sector.
Labour has introduced a higher rate of tax for top-earners, of course, but there is nothing to stop executives awarding themselves pay rises to compensate for this.
On the whole, Labour still looks pretty "relaxed" about people making large sums of money in the private sector, despite executive pay now being 81 times the average employees salary.
You can read the full Labour manifesto here (PDF format).
More to follow as the other major parties release their manifestos.
The Conservative Party
As with Labour, the focus of the Conservatives when it comes to high-earners, falls on the public sector. The one area, of course, that the government is directly accountable for.
An almost identical policy to Labour is that anyone in the public sector who earns more than the Prime Minister will have to have their salary signed off by the Treasury.
The Conservatives also propose to cut ministerial salaries by 5%.
There is very little to be found about boardroom salaries in the private sector. Regarding the banks, the Conservative manifesto states that they will,
"empower the Bank of England to crack down on risky bonus arrangements"
One other claim regards financing of a another policy; raising the inheritance tax threshold to £1m, paid for by a flat-rate levy on non-domiciled individuals. The manifesto makes no mention of what the flat rate is, but elsewhere it is revealed as £25,000.
Labour has already introduced a flat rate levy of £30,000, however, the Conservative levy will apply to a larger number of people.
Regarding high-earners, there is little to pick between the two manifestos released so far, with the similarities far outweighing the differences.
You can read the full Conservatives manifesto here (PDF format).
Two manifestos down, no salary or bonus caps, no high-pay commissions.
