I hear this narrative in the right-wing press a lot.
“It’s the politics of envy. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys, because markets work. If you don’t pay adequate salaries the best people leave”
Let’s talk the Elephant in the boardroom, executive pay More specifically the University vice-chancellor, whose pay has ballooned to that of a Premier League Footballer
In 2017, The VC at Bath Spa, received a record £808,000 for her final year of service, including a whopping £468,000 salary
BUT She is massively underpaid:
🤑compared to the top university president in the US who got £3.8 million last year
🤑compared to FTSE CEOs who earned an average of 4.5 million
🤑compared to Neymar who gets £775,000 a week
🤑compared to Tim Cook of Apple who earned 102 million in 2017
BUT this is a government funded educational institution and registered charity! At a time when it costs a student up to £50,000 in tuition fees and 6.1% in interest per year for the privilege! Is it no wonder that distrust in hierarchy is at all time highs?
Now that this alarming trend has made it to higher education, maybe the students will get to the bottom of the questions we have all been asking?
❓Who sets executive pay?
❓if markets work, why is it acceptable to pay peanuts to employ monkeys 🐵 to do the front line work?