A High Pay Commission?
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The woman who wasn't sure called it 'talent'.
I find this as ridiculous as describing my bin man as talent.
I say, call their bluff and let them bugger off to other countries if they like. I'm sure there are perfectly competent people who, with a fortnight's training could do the job as well for not so evil a pay packet.
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The Government spokesperson suggested that, if we have a high pay ceiling, we will discourage people of international standing from working in Britain. Where else does she think they might work? In which other countries in the world would they get paid such obscene amounts of money? I doubt it will actually discourage anyone and, if they are so keen only to work for ridiculously greedy amounts of money, good riddance to them - and to their tax avoidance scams as well!! We do not benefit from them, they distort the economy to the massive disadvantage of ordinary people.
The 'trickle-down' economy hasn't worked. Maybe we should try a trickle-up one for a change.
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A nicely controversial topic alongside the news IBM is considering closing its final salary pension. Given such organisations can no longer afford such schemes, when will media attention turn to the final salary index linked pensions paradise enjoyed by the public sector? According to David Craig, private sector employees pay £2 towards public sector pensions for every £1 they pay towards their own. Many are destined for pensions poverty. This is scandalous. High pay is self regulating. Pension Equality Commissioner now!
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We hear that constraining bankers' pay would cause the top people to go elsewhere - would that be a bad thing, considering the damage they have done to our economy?
Angela Knight says that salaries are best negotiated between employer and employee - but that is precisely what led to the short-term bonus scheme that caused the damage.
Sorry, we need to step in to save the banks from their own stupidity, or is it cupidity?
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Ordinary people in London have been priced out of the housing market because of the extra cash floating around because of city bonuses. High pay might be good for those getting it but has a negative affect on those lower down the economic ladder. Of course there needs to a high pay commision if only to understand the wider social impact of inflated pay packets.
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I think the Government could do an awful lot for the unwaged and poorly paid by simply raising tax thresholds to a reasonable amount. The idea that anyone should pay tax on an income under £10,000 is ridiculous. Even more silly is the idea of tax credits.... the cost of administration and the complexity of the system makes it untenable.Only when the tax system is more equitable and sensibly applied will it be seriously worth considering the notion of fair pay.A High Pay Commission can only be effective if all aspects earnings and tax are considered together.
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Does anybody ever mention that irrespective of the fairness, morality etc,etc anyone who can command a hefty salary or bonus pays a shedload of tax and National Insurance? Best to encourage the practice to finance the public services we all seem to applaud. Can't bear the carping and smallmindedness and, oh yes, the nasty , pernicious English habit of petty envy that persistently manifests itself. The Americans by and large do not have to suffer this nonsense why should we?
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High pay is paid because low pay doesn't get the employee the person paying high pay wants to employ.
It's like going into a shop and wanting the best item in the shop but only wanting to pay a price based on a "fair" formula, eg. 20 x the cost of the lowest priced item. Yes that sounds mad, and yes thats what a high pay commission is ,mad.
If the people who get low pay want high pay they need to try to get a higher paid job - just like those who complain footballers earn too much, they cant play football like the best and they cant run companies like the best - if they could they too would get high paid jobs.
I suggest those looking for a high pay commission look instead for a successful communist country. Good luck if you find one!
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What people like Battle need to start saying when those like Knight try to scare us by raising the spectre of people leaving the country is "Every time someone says something like that they bring one-world government a step closer."
These people implicitly get together with their foreign partners to gang up on the rest of us; we really need to get governments around the world to gang up on them.
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High pay unit??
Politics of envy?
Someone mentioned that the Low Pay Unit had been a howling success.
If that is so, how is it that the lowest paid are now relatively poorer than the poorest were when this was introduced?
Same old failed left wing litany. If someone is doing better than you, they must be penalised.
The former Soviet Union collapsed in a heap because it practiced what is now being proposed by these left wing intellectuals.
Are we then to follow its (failed) example, or are we to go forward by encouraging the brightest to earn as much as they are able, and in the process drag up those less fortunate and lower paid by their efforts.
I always thought that the Left envied success. This daft proposal proves it! New Labour and their supporters have consistently overregulated Britain until our society groans under the weight of bureaucracy.The establishment thinks "We need a fresh idea!"
How about ANOTHER useless bureaucracy??
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Re; #1 funnyJoedunn
My sentiments also.
#4. younghal
again yes, agree.
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I'll just add my approval to Looternite's above.
My vote's on it being cupidity.
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Many happy returns to the PM Blog!
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Mrs Eff! How right you are!
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Re pay, I add my voice to those who feel there is a need to curb the excesses at the very top of the pay heap. The multiples earned by a 'golden few' are obscene and cannot, imho, be justified by any criteria whatsoever. Moreover, these sums are creating a sense of injustice throughout the rest of British society which is unhealthy and demoralising.
As I've said elsewhere, there are only 24 hours in anyone's day and 365 days in everyone's year (except for the Leap Years, of course!). Anyone who is working is giving of their time - Nobody's time is worth a multiple of several hundred thousand of that of somebody lower down the food chain.
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These 'talented' people we have to pay to retain. Are they the same people that have nearly wrecked the world economy?
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The debate about bankers bonuses and high pay are part of the Government's smokescreen to disguise the fact that it was Labour's incompetant mismanagement of the economy which caused the recession and drove our financial services industry on to the rocks. Credit was too cheap and property price inflation was allowed to spiral away unchecked. So that there was apparently no risk in lending 4, 5,or 6 times the borrower's salary because in a year or so the property would be worth more than the amount loaned.
It should not take more than 30 seconds intelligent thought to realise that paying bounuses, usually in the form of share options, could not have more than a minute effect on the stability of the economy.
So, we do not want the governement to interfere in renumeration in banks or any other part of the private sector. We need it to start putting right the economic damage wrought over the last 12 years.
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Aye, Dark Design, the very same.
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#16. darkdesign
Yes - but they are on a different package now: the targets are lower.
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Agree with most of posts, esp Itmakesmelaugh and the Fireman feller.
I am convinced that the main cause of the mess that we are now in, is not high wages, but the silly bonuses that were atached if these people
met thier targets. So you get some guy from the opposition on board by offering him/her fifty grand a year more, so they are on ,say two hundred grand a year. BUT they get half a million bonus if they meet the targets.Hey guess what (numpty's) yer mans going to meet the target no matter what stunts he has to pull,or rules he has to bend. commmon sense and balance of risk went right out of the window. and our economy soon followed it.
We have seen signs recently that now that the worst of the storm appears to be over. lots of these characters are itching to get thier snouts back into the trough, and get back to the "good old days".
We must not allow this to happen.
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I'd do it for nothing.
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Many happy returns Blog!
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Eddie - when all said and done, do they care...??
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um, MrsEff: is that an echo?! have another glass of champagne...x
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Testing, testing.
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That's right, shove it where the comments go!
Eric Doherty.
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The BBC it's what we do.Oh Yes!
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Go on!
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Don't forget the Water vole...
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I couldn't agree more, Mrs Eff; you are most loquacious this evening. Unqualified loons abound.
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and, thankyou!
nikki noodle
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The High Pay Commission can only have the same outcome as the Low Pay Commission. Which is to edge those who earn high pay outside of the system. Just as there is a black market economy of those paid below the minimum wage, with no real practical chance of any redress, any restriction a Commission could impose on high pay would see new and improved notions of how to boost ones income without it being classified as salary.
I am minded of the Managed Service Companies (MSC's) so prosed by free lance workers in IT and Engineering. Basically a scheme which say people pay themselves in dividends from their own company rather than salary in order to gain a tax efficient income. IR35 put a stop to this, other schemes ensued.
But this is at a level which is a fraction of these high level bankers, who surely will employ accountants to ensure their income. However this may well push them outside of the manageable workforce, just like the underpaid.
Can the government not have a say in those banks which we own and let private companies go about their business however they wish? This would risk those talented ones being drawn toward the un-influenced banks but not necessarily. The public sector is still a huge employer despite consistently lower salaries than the private sector.
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nikki - are you the one that chops the chillis for the chutney. Are you the chillis choppers's choice for champ. Are you the chutney chillis chomper's choice for champ.It must be warm work, chilling chopping. Go on!
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Mind the gap!
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Grind the map!
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... Tomasz Shafernaker...what's the weather like in Gdansk...?
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Eh?
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Eddie:
Yes, the idea of a high-pay commission sounds great on the record...but in theory it has limited chance of succeeding...
=Dennis Junior=
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Tad bit off topic:
What is the originating story of your thread???
=Dennis Junior=
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Mrs F, well remembered! All day I had a nagging feeling that August 17th was more than just another day. And it was!
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I think we were all a bit 'tired and emotional' yesterday, Eddie. I hope you had time for a celebratory drink last night? The Beach is awash with empties this morning ...
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