To the surprise of no- one outside of the Government and the press, the High Pay Centre (HPC) has come out with a report indicating that institutional investors are not interested in tackling excessive executive pay, despite new powers to do just that being introduced by the former Coalition Government.
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Their analysis showed that between 2014 and 2018- the first five full years of the new regime no FTSE 100 companies pay policy was challenged at an AGM; this despite median levels of CEO pay being £3.9 million in 2017. This is an astronomical multiple of the average UK salary, however despite there being plenty of public outcries, it’s hard to see how it can be changed without potentially damaging Government interference over and above what’s in place, and or greater worker shareholder participation.
After all, what incentive is there for a pension fund or other institutional investor to “rock the boat” given many will have close relationships with the incumbent boards, and removing successful management teams can be counterproductive. The only solution we can think of is to allow those with a proxy interest ie indirectly holding shares via a pension fund to vote (whether any would bother is another matter), or to link remuneration closer to long term success and profitability, oh wait a minute this has already been done at Persimmon and it still led to a massive outcry when he was too successful.
Sadly unless all the top executives grow an altruistic streak the issue will continue.
Read the report here
