Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill
Debate between Lord Kerr of Kinlochard and Lord Blackwell
Lord Blackwell
That is precisely my point. I would have thought that the company that successfully employs lots of people at all skill levels, including those on the minimum wage or at a low-skill level, is helping society and helping us all to prosper together.
Another example is a company in a consultancy that employs only PhDs. The ratio between the top and the bottom in that company may be relatively small. Is that a better company than one that employs lots of people on the minimum wage? I think that this information is almost entirely irrelevant to any judgment about whether the pay at the top of the company is appropriate. That is a relevant question, but this information is potentially misleading and potentially encourages those viewing the annual report to take a misguided view of the appropriateness of the pay policy within the company. I do not think a case is being made for it.
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard
My Lords, I understand the general points made the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, and I have considerable sympathy for them. However, I do not understand their relevance to Clause 71, which is about remuneration reports. The problem with remuneration reports is that the degree of detail now required in them means that they have become rather long and complex. An additional requirement to include a comparison between payments made to two categories of staff, neither of which is within the scope of the remuneration report, would add further complexity without the justification of relevance. Remuneration reports are about the remuneration of directors and senior executives. The amendment calls for the inclusion of factual material on individuals who are neither directors nor senior executives.
Such complexities have costs. Take two plcs with 70 and 100,000 employees across the world in, say, 50 to 85 countries. I am thinking of two examples which I know well. Is it really necessary, for the purposes of the remuneration report, to require them to establish with each of their businesses in each country where they operate which are the lowest pay rates paid, presumably to the most junior, temporary staff of that country, then take appropriate exchange rates and try to work out the unluckiest 10 in any of their operations anywhere across the world? The remuneration report is about the directors and senior executives. The purpose of a remuneration report must surely be to explain to shareholders the company’s remuneration policy and the result that it has produced for the senior individuals that the report is required to cover, and to do so as simply and clearly as possible. Would this amendment assist that? I do not think so.