NO-HEADLINE
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Institute of Directors, the free-market body representing senior company directors, yesterday defended big boardroom pay packages and blamed bad publicity about "fat cat salaries" for harming the image of business.
In a research paper Ruth Lea, who heads the IoD's policy unit, said she accepted there were legitimate concerns about pay but argued that big companies were right to award managers big pay rises as a fair reward for success.
"The nation's prosperity depends on them. If they perform their tasks well they should be suitably rewarded," she said.
"But all too often high pay packages have not been properly handled and this has led to the all-too-familiar media outrage which has hurt business's image. It is vital that pay packages are fully explained." Ms Lea said pay rises for directors were "within the range of European practice and well below those in the US".
The IoD found that small company directors' pay was relatively modest with the boss of a pounds 25m-a-year business earning pounds 52,000, plus a bonus of pounds 12,000. The head of a company with sales of between pounds 25m and pounds 200m earned on average pounds 82,250 plus a pounds 20,000 bonus.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments