A new study shows that even after a pay cut taken by UK executives during the Covid-19 pandemic, the average annual income for CEOs is 86 times the average income of full-time employees and workers.
Remuneration 86 Times Higher for Top Executives as Compared to Simple Employees
The CEOs of the top 100 companies on the FTSE 100 Inex will earn an average , according to the High Pay Centre think tank. The report states that salaries earned by them are 86 times higher than the average annual income of a full-time employee in the UK, which is $42,900.
A Drop in CEO Salaries After the Covid-19 Outbreak
The salaries of CEOs fell by an average 17% in 2020; this figure was recorded at $4.43 million in 2019. The think tank links the fall to the Covid-19 pandemic. The High Pay Centre wrote in its report that there was no doubt the drop in the level of salaries was largely the result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting closures. The pandemic has had a major impact on corporate performance, although the rate of decline has varied depending on the sector.
AstraZeneca CEO Earnings 500 Times Higher than British Employees
According to the findings, the highest-paid CEO earned a total of $21.05 million in 2020 at AstraZeneca, a multinational pharmaceutical company. This is approximately 500 times the average salary of British employees and workers and 197 times the average salary of British employees at AstraZeneca.
Covid-19 Pandemic Raises Inequality in the UK
High Pay Centre director, Luke Hildyard, said: “The higher salaries of chief executives reflected a wider gap between rich and poor in Britain than in most other European countries. CEO pay packages are designed to reflect the experiences of shareholders, employees and other stakeholders; so in one sense, the lower pay levels this year show the system is working as intended.”
The GMB, a general trade union in the UK with over 600,000 members, expressed similar concerns. Gary Smith, GMB’s general secretary, said:
“The pandemic has highlighted the enormous inequalities that exist in our society … If this government is serious about a levelling up agenda, ministers must make sure our local government workers get proper salary increases – while enacting to close the obscene pay gap in the private sector.”
Female Executives Are Paid 66% Less than their Male Counterparts
According to surveys, women who run financial corporations in the UK are paid 66% less than their male counterparts. New research in the UK shows that despite the increase in the number of women on the boards of directors in recent years, female executives in the UK’s largest financial service companies earn on average 66% less than their male counterparts!
Comparing the Salaries of Male and Female Managers
According to new research, women board members earned an average £247,100 ($349,720) a year in 2020, while their male counterparts earned 22 722,300. The study was conducted by the law firm Fox & Partners, which examines the pay gap in UK financial companies. The firm has published its results by surveying 350 financial companies in the UK.
Increasing the Number of Women Board Members
According to the Hampton-Alexander Review, an independent body that examines gender diversity in companies, the number of women on the boards of these 350 companies has increased by 50% in the past five years, from 682 to 1,026 in 2020, but there is still a difference. Income gap between women and men is significant.
Felicia Willow, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society, said: “In 2020, the enforcement of gender pay gap reporting for large employers was suspended due to a concern of the impact of reporting on employers. What we’ve seen since then is the pandemic policy response disproportionately impacting women, particularly at work. We know more women have been furloughed, have lost their jobs, have had their hours cut, and have had greater disruption due to home schooling than men.
We know that the impact on Disabled women, Black women, and other minority groups has been even worse … Gender pay gap reporting is one way that employers can identify issues that need action. A year ago, we didn’t know what we faced. Now, we know that we face significantly worsening inequality that may take decades to redress. There is no reasonable argument supporting the claim that gender pay gap reporting should remain unenforced in 2021”.
The Government Is Not Taking Any Actions to Close the Pay Gap
A year ago, the UK stopped its requirement for companies to report gender pay gaps for their employees due to the coronavirus pandemic. The move, the government said, did not undermine efforts to pay men and women fairly. In 2020, men earned an average 15.5% more than women in the UK, down from 17.4% in 2019, according to official figures.
“Half of British women worry about returning to the era of gender discrimination”.
A new poll shows that half of British women are worried about a return to gender inequality of the 1970s due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. More than a year after the Covid-19 outbreak, women are more likely to be on temporary leave, losing their jobs, and working at home. They are increasingly worried about their future; about half of women surveyed by Mumsnet said that they expect gender inequality against women to return to the previous normal levels in the next few years.
With schools reopening in the UK, the survey showed that 70% of women have borne the brunt of home schooling during the quarantine. Three-quarters of women said that, during the quarantine, their husbands were able to get jobs without any problems; one in five British mothers said they had to reduce their working hours to take care of the growing care of their children, and more than a third said they were professionally injured, while their spouses were not. Inequality in the workplace is one of the problems for women in the UK who are paid less than men for equal work.
Pay inequality has always been one of the most important forms of discrimination in British society. This has always been objected to by many British employees who, despite equal work, do not receive equal pay. Gender pay discrimination is another issue which has always existed in the UK, where women are often paid less than men. Unfortunately, Boris Johnson’s government has not taken significant action in this regard, and the pay gap in British society has widened recently.
