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BOSSES’ SOARING PAY IS SLAMMED

Shell is often at odds with institutional investors over the generous pay packages it gives to its executives, such as boss Peter Voser, who last year took home £4.6 million in pay and bonuses.

By Tracey Boles and Geoff Ho: Sunday May 15,2011

THE pay of top earners is spiralling out of control, a high-level report will warn tomorrow, as investors prepare to tackle three of Britain’s biggest companies over excessive remuneration.

The independent inquiry into high pay across both the public and private sectors, says that it is climbing “at an alarming rate”.

The High Pay Commission will also warn in its report, out tomorrow, that Britain is on course for levels of inequality not seen since Victorian times.

It believes that unless steps are taken, the percentage of national income taken home by the top 0.1 per cent of earners will more than treble by 2030.

Royal Dutch Shell, which holds its annual meeting on Tuesday, will be the first big company to be subjected to investor anger over its pay practices this week.

Shell is often at odds with institutional investors over the generous pay packages it gives to its executives, such as boss Peter Voser, who last year took home £4.6 million in pay and bonuses.

The £14 million pay packet of new Lloyds Banking Group chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio is set to be a flashpoint at its meeting, the day after Shell’s.

Corporate governance group PIRC believes that the awards given to Lloyds directors are excessive and it has advised its members to vote against the bank’s remuneration report.

Similarly, Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam and his board are set to come under fire from investors for the huge bonuses they received last year, despite the debacle that was the firm’s failed bid for the Asian insurance giant AIG.

The High Pay Commission is looking into why pay at the top has increased over the last 30 years and why pay differentials have grown.

It believes the triggers include excessive performance-related pay packages, company structures failing to exert proper control over top earnings, labour market failure and the rise of individualism.

The commission, chaired by former journalist Deborah Hargreaves, will suggest reforms that could mitigate the relentless rise of pay. It will propose a “framework for fair pay”, with interim recommendations ahead of its final report later this year.

Alongside the report, a poll will reveal current public attitudes towards high pay.

It is thought that the public will demand that there is a clampdown on high pay.

Since the credit crunch, the banking sector in particular has come under fire for its bumper pay awards.

It has continued to pay out hefty bonuses, despite presiding over the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The Government has now brought in a bonus tax in an attempt to end the “casino banking” culture.

SUNDAY EXPRESS ARTICLE

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