If anyone was in any doubt that we are not all in this together, this week started off with the news that top bosses’ pay had increased a massive 14% in the past year. Their median salary is an eye-watering £568,500, and, as if that wasn’t enough to live on, it was topped up with a £553,200 bonus.
Yet average pay rose by just 2.1% if you were lucky. In local government, it rose not at all for the third year on the trot, meaning members were worse off by about 15%. The rest of our public sector workers fared almost as badly with mere 1% increases overall.
The FTSE 100 chief executives now earn 120 times the average earnings of their employees. What can make someone at the top worth so much more than someone at the bottom? It’s a statistic that should alarm us all and it is not sustainable.
And to add further fuel to that tale of inequality, we hear that more than 4,500 people have been admitted to hospital this year suffering from malnutrition. If it weren’t for the Trussell Trust and the generosity of the majority of people, there would be many more facing that plight. This year 350,000 people have been fed by Foodbanks – a rise of 170% in the past year. What a shameful statistic in the sixth richest nation.