Pay Rises in the UK

 The size of the funding increase awarded to King Charles 111 by the government is unjustifiable, and all the more so at a time when millions of people are struggling with the  painful effects  of high food, housing and other costs. Teachers have had to fight very hard for a below-inflation offer of 6.5%, along with many other public servants, and the economic outlook is widely accepted to be bleak.

It seems extraordinary, in such circumstances, that the government has seen fit to offer the new king a rise estimated to be 45% from 2025. The precise figure will depend on profits from the government property portfolio known as the crown estate. The projected increase of £38.5m, taking the sovereign grant from £86m to £125m, undermines King Charles's often-cited commitment to "slim down" the monarchy...

By emphasizing that the percentage of crown estate profits that the royal family receives is being reduced, from 25% to 12%, the Treasury presented the deal as if it were a pay cut. The truth is that estimated profits of £1bn from offshore windfarm leases means that the crown estate's income is expected to balloon, placing the royals in line for a huge increase. Lord Turnbull, a former cabinet secretary, used unusually blunt language in criticising what he called "a deliberate attempt to obfuscate"...

For 250 years, since the reign of Georg111, parliament agreed the size of the sovereign grant. But Mr Cameron and George Osborne decided that MPs should no longer have a say over this form of public expenditure... In a constitutional monarchy like ours MPs should have a say over the funding provided to the head of state. Mr Sunak won't give it back to them. But Sir Keith Starmer should commit to restoring parliamentary sovereignty, and the accountability that comes with it.

(Guardian Editorial, 2023)

Meanwhile, we are told that public sector pay restraint is needed. Otherwise, we are told, inflation will increase.

A Poor Old Granny
Charles Gogin (1844-1931)
Photo Credit: Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture  [CC BY-NC-ND] 

The bosses of the UKs 100 biggest listed companies received an average pay rise of £500,000 last year, while many of the millions of people working for them saw their wages fail to keep up with soaring inflation.

FTSE 100 chief executives received an average pay rise of 16% last year, taking their median pay to £3.9m, up from £3.4m in 2021, according to research by the High Pay Centre thinktank ...

Pascal Soriot, the CEO of the drug company AstraZeneca was the highest paid last year, collecting £15.3m, up from £13.9m the previous year. Charles Woodburn, the boss of arms manufacturer BAE Systems was the second highest paid, collecting £10.7m. In third place was Albert Manifold, the chief executive of the building supplies company CRH, who was paid £10.4m...

The median FTSE 100 CEO is now paid 118 times more than the median UK full-time worker, an increase from 108 times in 2021 and 79 times in 2020. The average salary for full-time UK workers is £33,00, according to Office for National Statistics figures.

Luke Hildyard, the director of the High Pay Centre, said:

"At a time when so many households are struggling with living costs, an economic model that prioritises a half a million pound pay rise for executives who are already multimillionaires is surely going wrong somewhere... We need to give workers more voice on company boards, strengthen trade union rights and enable low and middle income earners to get a fairer share in relation to those at the top...

The average CEO makes more in three days than the average UK worker makes for the last thirteen years in a year...

(Rupert Neate, The Guardian, 2023)

This has been going on for years and years and while not expecting any action from the politicians who have been in power for the last thirteen years, it will be interesting to see if it will be any different when there is a change of government at the next election. I don't hold out much hope.