Lord Myners
Main Page: Lord Myners (Crossbench - Life peer)
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I am sympathetic to my noble friend’s view. We have to balance that against the fact that, while it is not the Government’s role to micromanage company pay, we have a role to play in addressing what is, as he says, a clear market failure. The culture has to change, too. We are pleased to see institutional investors taking a tougher stance on pay than they have in the past.
Lord Myners
My Lords, following on from the noble Lord, Lord Tugendhat, the report produced by Manifest shows that the average UK chief executive is now paid 240 times the average earnings in this country. This is an outrageous multiple and it simply is not satisfactory for the Government to say that they are considering allowing binding resolutions on an optional basis. The time has come for the Government to get a grip on this issue and to make sure that these excessive acts of greed are stopped.
Lord De Mauley
My Lords, I am not sure what binding votes on an optional basis might mean, but that is not what is proposed.