In a statement today commenting on a report showing a near 50% rise in the pay for directors at Britain’s biggest companies, The Institute of Directors has said UK greed must be able to compete internationally:
Attracting and retaining the greediest is essential. Trying to regulate greed could damage Britain’s competitiveness when it comes to attracting the greediest executives to our shores.
Sir Martin Sorrell, head of advertising company WPP, also spoke out defending rising executive pay, saying he believed his greed should be compared with media companies greed worldwide.
Look at how greedy chief executives are in other parts of the world. We are a worldwide company and our greed has to be able to compete on the world market .
The report has also prompted a comment from Prime Minister David Cameron, who said:
This is evidence that British companies are able to beat competition from anywhere in the world when it comes to greediness. It is essential we retain a competitive edge when it comes to attracting the greediest, the most grasping and the most unscrupulous.
The present rise in UK greed is in sharp contrast to the major falls in profits and share prices due to the poor economic performance of most FTSE 100 companies. When asked about this, Sir Martin said:
If we gave ourselves rises and bonuses only when everything was going well, it wouldn’t technically be greedy, would it? Giving ourselves these massive pay increases at exactly the same time things are going badly are a useful reminder that UK businesses are world leaders when it comes to rapacious greediness.
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