Who will do something about the following?
- In the USA the top 1% get in one week 40% more than the bottom 20% in a year; the richest 20% of income earners earn in total after tax more than the bottom 80% combined. With respect to wage growth: the top 1% got 150% increase over three decades; the bottom 10% got 15%
- In the UK In 1979 6% of the nation’s income went to the top 1%; today it has more than doubled to 14%.
- In 2000 the average FTSE 100 Chief Executive was paid 40 times more than an ordinary worker; by 2011 it had surged to 185 times higher – even though share prices were lower.
- The report from the High Pay Centre found that while over 400 people were paid more than £1m at just one business, Barclays Bank, there were fewer than 300 Executives being paid that amount in the whole of Japan.
- The director of BP was paid 3006% more in 2011 than his counterpart in 1979. The head of Barclays had gone up in same period 4899%
- 2014 national audit office revealed that one in five large British businesses paid absolutely no corporation tax in the previous year and more than half paid less than £10m.
Real disposable household incomes declined in all English regions apart from London from 2003 onwards. From 2004 the wages of the bottom half of society began stagnating, and for the bottom third they fell.
In the three years after 2010 British workers suffered the fourth worst fall in wages out of 27 EU nations – an average fall of 5.5%. Whilst according to Sunday Times 2014 Rich List the fortune of the wealthiest 1000 Britons had doubled in just five years.
Mark Roberts 