Snouts in the trough

BONUSES paid out to financial sector workers since the start of the 2007 crisis are likely to break through the £100 billion barrier this year, campaigners said today. The revised total from the Robin Hood Tax campaign comes as the big banks gear up to report their 2014 full-year results, triggering fresh bonus payouts and stoking public anger. Today’s report is based on analysis of Office for National Statistics data which shows that bonuses paid out in the financial sector – including insurers – since the start of the crisis in October 2007 have already reached £91bn. By the end of the 2014-15 financial year, this figure is likely to have surpassed the £100bn mark, the campaign noted.

Man from the Pru

Chief executive Tidjane Thiam remuneration for last year totalled £7.8 million.

He was censured by the Financial Services Authority in March after Prudential was fined £30m for two regulatory breaches relating to its aborted £23 billion acquisition of Asia-based AIA three years ago.

Shareholder Ian Michel told Prudential's annual shareholder meeting in London: "It seems to me that the executive pay is very high. I have no doubt everybody works very hard but the word 'greedy' is not entirely removed from my mind."


Another described Mr Thiam's pay as "obscene".

Steve O'Donnell, a representative of staff union Unite at Prudential UK, which has a large site at Craigforth, Stirling, questioned the bonus payout to Mr Thiam in light of the FSA fine.

Life's good for some

Edinburgh-based Standard Life’s saw its top three directors share close to £10 million in bonuses in 2012 with the chief executive of the insurance giant, David Nish, nearly doubling his remuneration to £5m.


Keith Skeoch saw his pay rise to £4.3m from £2.6m, thanks mainly to a bonus from his role as head of Standard Life Investments (SLI), while finance director Jackie Hunt saw her overall pay rise to £2.5m from £1.4m.

65 per cent growth in operating profit before tax to £900m and 61 per cent growth in share price over the year.

What recession?

In the directors box

We are all accustomed to stories of over-paid and under-played footballers but recent figures show that SPL directors pay and benefits increased by 16.5%, despite a 6% fall in revenues.

Of course, the way Scottish football is heading, they might as well be funeral directors. 

Dunfermline now joins Hearts as another football club that can't pay its team's wages on time. Players at that level are not highly paid therefore any delay in wages can lead to inconvenience and even hardship. They pay travel costs to training and then put themselves at risk of injury on a weekly basis without being paid.

Have cash can travel

The cost of train tickets increased by 3.9 per cent this month  but Scotrail boss Stephen Montgomery won't be too inconvienienced. His pay package rose from £279,000 in 2011 to £333,000 last year, a £54,000 rise, which includes bonuses, a car allowance and National Insurance contributions. The firm, which is owned by Aberdeen-based FirstGroup. His boss Tim O’Toole, head of FirstGroup, stands to pick up share awards of nearly £1m, on top of a basic salary £846,000.

Tough at the top? Not really

Capitalists love touting the benefits of trickle-down economics. It is a rationalization of inequality. By linking the welfare of the working-class  directly to the prosperity of the rich, they can protect the interests of corporations and the wealthy without the fear of backlash.

The investment banking hierarchy is essentially a large bureaucracy. At the bottom are the manual unskilled maintenance staff like security guards, the janitors and the cleaners who keep the offices safe and warm and clean. Then there are the administrative assistants, who support several bankers at one time and make about $35,000 a year. Above them are the analysts, college graduates whose life consists of 120-hour work weeks and an endless stream of menial tasks for $65,000 to $90,000 a year. Next up, and supported by the analysts, are the associates -- freshly minted MBAs with more than a $100,000 in school loans hanging over them -- who can look forward to taking home between $100,000 and $175,000 a year. If these young men and women, who work 90-hour weeks while trying to juggle a family, survive long enough to become vice presidents, their compensation can rise to $200,000-$300,000 per year.

Above the vice presidents are the directors, which is a training zone for the next pay grade (or a graveyard for those who don't have what it takes). Directors rely on the workers below them to do all the grunt work, including research, financial analysis, and client presentations, while they mainly babysit clients and occasionally come up with ideas to pitch to them. Their pay for these relatively cushy tasks ranges from $350,000 to $500,000 per year; but even this is meager compared to what their superiors make. Managing directors, who work even less and spend more time golfing instead, can make anywhere from a million to several million dollars a year.

Finally you have the really big fish -- the CEOs, presidents, executive vice presidents, and others who manage the entire circus, think deep thoughts, and schmooze with politicians to get regulations loosened. What makes these gigs so coveted is not just the fact that few ever manage to join that echelon but that the pay-scale jumps to tens of millions of dollars (even hundreds of millions) per year for work that is only moderately more challenging than that of the managing directors. It may be lonely at the top, but it's  lucrative.

It should be clear from the above that the wealth generated in these organizations gathers mainly at the top of the pyramid, while the people at the bottom, who do a lot of the heavy lifting and are instrumental in building that wealth, receive only a fraction of those riches. Sure, the pay scales in investment banking are pretty good by the standards of other industries, but it is the proportional difference between the compensation at the top and the bottom that makes a difference. This large income gap leads to an exponentially faster accumulation of wealth in a few hands, which in turn widens the prosperity gap even more. In other words, prosperity is not really trickling down but trickling up.

The more wealth trickles up in the capitalist system, the more it frustrates those at the bottom -- without whose efforts that wealth could not be created in the first place.

Taken from here

turning on the tap for some

Senior managers at Scottish Water paid themselves more than £1.5 million last year including a £369,000 bonus despite most state-employed staff having to endure a pay freeze.

According its annual report, the quango’s dozen board members earned £1.57 million in the 2011/12 tax year. This is an average of £131,000 each and almost seven per cent more than they were paid the previous year. The total includes the bonus, which was paid only to the five executive members. They each received an average of £73,800 in addition to their basic salaries. In addition, the four longest serving members of the board have racked up pension pots worth a total of £3.8 million.

Richard Ackroyd, Scottish Water’s chief executive, retained his position as Scotland’s highest paid public sector employee, earning a basic salary of £263,000, a bonus worth £105,000 and other benefits totalling £12,000. His £380,000 remuneration package was eight per cent higher than the previous year. In addition he has a retirement pot worth nearly £1.6 million.

Geoff Aitkenhead, the asset management director, received an extra £69,000 as part of his £252,000 remuneration package. Chris Banks, the commercial director, earned a £64,000 bonus, bringing his total wage packet to £234,000. Peter Farrer, the customer service delivery director, received a bonus worth £62,000 and total remuneration of £228,000. Douglas Millican, the finance and regulation director, was paid £253,000 last year, including a £69,000 bonus.

A spokesman said: “Whilst there has been considerable debate recently about incentive payments to directors in all areas of the business world and particularly rewards for directors of businesses which have failed, Scottish Water can clearly be seen to be an outstanding Scottish success story.”

So, where did the actual workers share disappear to?

Self-interest and self -praise

Another of our ill-gotten gains series

Equitable Life has enlarged the pay package of its chief executive, Charles Thomson. Thomson's total rewards rose by 22% to top £1million. Thomson's package included salary of £453,973, a salary-related bonus of £199,305, and a discretionary bonus of half his salary - the maximum permitted under an "annual retention bonus scheme for senior staff"

Thomson has been reprimanded by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries for misconduct, after being found guilty of bringing the profession into disrepute over the revelation during the court action that he had faked his job reference for Equitable in 2001. He was guilty of "failure to comply with the standards of behaviour and integrity which the public and the profession might reasonably expect of a member".

Thomson had admitted in court in April 2005 that he himself was the author of the glowing reference to his "exceptional record of success" at Scottish Widows, where he was the deputy chief executive from 1995 to 2000.The reference concluded: "We will miss his intellect, integrity, and energy and feel sure he will bring great value to other organisations at the highest levels."

Nothing like a bit of self-praise and now being richly awarded above inflation remuneration .

The reward for failure

We read Northern Rock's former boss Adam Applegarth received a £750,000 pay-off when he left last December. Applegarth, who is 46, is also entitled to draw on a pension pot of £2.5m at the age of 55 . Experts say that could bring him retirement benefits of up to £200,000 a year.

As we all have read Northern Rock collapsed and bad management was a factor in this bank's demise . So is this a capitalism's reward for failure ?

Many of us facing attacks on our final salary pension schemes will also be wondering why we have to work longer for less while the rich can dip into a retirement pot of gold .

A fine performance - a rich reward

Tim Bowdler, chief executive of Johnston Press, saw his emoluments surge 36%, to more than £1m, last year despite a fall in profits as the local newspaper group grappled with the changes affecting the industry. The annual report for Edinburgh-headquartered Johnston Press shows Bowdler was the biggest winner in an increase in boardroom pay in 2007, when his earnings jumped from £800,000 to £1,088,000.The rise was largely due to a dramatic increase in the amounts that Bowdler received under performance-related bonuses, from £236,000 to £516,000. Bowdler's base salary rose by 3% to £556,000. Bowdler was also awarded 125,200 shares under a performance share scheme .He is in line to receive 242,911 shares under the PSP if the conditions are met. At yesterday's closing price of 128.5p these would be worth £312,140.

Performance related bonus ? A fall in profits ? Johnston Press reported a 6.3% decline in pre-tax profits .

BP Bonus

Been a while since Socialist Courier directed atention to the rumuneration that the capitalist class receives .

BP chief executive makes do with bonus of £1.26 million .

The Herald has revealed that Hayward, who became chief executive in May 2007, was awarded a bonus of £1.26m for 2007 which does not include his base salary of £877,000 . Lord Browne of Madingley, the former chief executive of BP, earned more than £3 million before he resigned last year.

A reward for success ? The company last month reported that 2007 net profit fell 5.5% to $20.8bn, despite a 6.2% rise in revenue to $291.4bn and lay-offs of 5000 workers . In contrast, two of BP's main competitors reported a surge in earnings. Royal Dutch Shell, Europe's largest oil company, reported a 23% rise in full-year earnings to a record $31.3bn, while Exxon Mobil posted the largest annual profit yet by a US company with net earnings of $40.6bn.

BP's top five directors, including Hayward, missed out on share awards worth a potential £10.7m because of the company's poor performance. The five were granted no shares at all from a possible 2.2 million under the group's 2005-2007 share incentive scheme - even so i am sure a bonus of a million and a quarter pounds for failure would not go amiss to readers of this blog.

Jake Molloy, general secretary of the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee, the union for offshore rig workers, said: “To make these redundancies and cutbacks and to award themselves payments of this nature is hypocrisy beyond belief. It's sickening.”

Northern on the Rocks

Northern Rock , the bank that is in crisis , has been paying a number of its senior managers secret bonuses according to a report in the Independent .

The bank has sanctioned millions of pounds in confidential "retention bonuses" to managers and management board directors deemed "essential to its continuing excellent operational performance". Some 173 staff out of a workforce of more than 6,000 have been paid the bonuses. An outlay of more than £2 million a month on bonuses to this select band of employees.

As the saying goes "The Devil protects his own"

bankers

So some of the banks took a beating with the sub-prime mortgage crisis but it didn't stop some bank executives from taking their slice of their cake .

Lynn Peacock, chief executive the Clydesdale bank pay almost doubled to £2.1m. , compared with £1.1m in the preceding year. She also became entitled to an undisclosed number of shares under an incentive scheme operated by the parent company, National Australia group .

Gilbert and riches

Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, saw the value of his overall remuneration tumble in the latest year despite bumper profits for the fund manager, but remained one of corporate Scotland's best-paid executives.The annual report of Aberdeen Asset Management, published yesterday, shows that Gilbert received total pay and benefits of £3,096,000 in the year to September, down from £3,951,000 in the preceding year . The fall in remuneration was due to the fact that Gilbert elected for employer contributions to his defined contribution pension scheme with the firm to cease. Aberdeen said following changes to UK pensions law on April 6, 2006, other employees had elected to follow suit. The A-day changes included the introduction of a £1.5m limit on individual pension funds.

Even at the reduced level, Gilbert's package makes him one of Scotland Plc's biggest earners. In 2006, Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, earned a basic salary of nearly £1.2m and a performance bonus of £2.8m, boosting his total package by over £1m on 2005 to just under £4m.Sandy Crombie, chief executive of Standard Life, earned a pay, bonus and benefits package worth £1.6m in 2006.

Stewart Milne of the building company took home more than £7.5m in salary, benefits and dividends in the year to June

Branson Virgin Rail - Just the ticket

While the Virgin Rail passengers face nine per cent fare increases ( an average of 4.8 per cent from Jan 6, with first class passengers facing rises of nine per cent) and some of the worst delays in the country (In its worst performing year in 2002, just 73.6 per cent of West Coast trains ,London to Glasgow, and 62.5 per cent of Cross-Country trains , Cornwall to Aberdeen, arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time) , Richard Branson pocketed a £24 million dividend from Virgin Rail . The West Coast and Cross Country lines, have received more than £1 billion in subsidies from the Government since he took over the route in 1997.

Richard Murphy, the director of Tax Research, an independent consultancy firm, said: "He's stripping the company of cash while saying at the same time, 'I need more public subsidy'."

The Price of Learning

The principal of Glasgow University accepted a £23,000 pay rise in the past year - an increase of more than five times the rate of inflation. The 11% increase brings Sir Muir Russell's salary and pensions benefits to some £234,000 a year at a time when the rest of the university's staff have been given increases of just 4%. Last year's university accounts show the level of Sir Muir's remuneration package jumped from £184,000 in 2004-05 to £211,000 in the last financial year - a 15% rise. As part of his pension arrangements from his career in the civil service, Sir Muir, 59, will pocket a one-off payment of £215,000 when he turns 60.
He can also expect to have an annual pension of £65,000 waiting for him at age 65.

The latest increase is likely to make Sir Muir one of the highest-paid principals in the country, depending on the increases enjoyed by other university leaders which have not yet been revealed. Last year, the highest-paid principals in Scotland were Professor Duncan Rice from Aberdeen University (£215,000), Dr Brian Lang from St Andrews (£209,000), and Sir Alan Langlands from Dundee (£202,000).

"There is a growing feeling that universities are being turned into businesses in which the collegiality on which their past successes have depended is abandoned and senior managers are paid inflated salaries to get as much as possible out of their junior employees for as little reward as possible." - Terry Brotherstone, who is president of the lecturers' union UCU Scotland

The Gravy Train

The highest-earning 300 bosses in the public sector saw their salaries increase by 12.8 per cent last year, raising their average to £237,564. Seventeen of the top bosses earned more than £500,000, according to the Taxpayer's Alliance second annual Public Sector Rich List.

The pay rises, more than three times the national average . The top 10 earn an average salary of £799,000 – more than 40 times the basic pay of a nurse or soldier.

Top of the league is Adam Crozier, chief executive of the Royal Mail. The only person on the list with a seven-figure salary. Strike-breaker Crozier has presided over the cancellation of the second mail delivery and an increase in the price of stamps. He saw his pay package swell by 21 per cent last year, taking his salary to £1,256,000. The report shows that it equates to earning £1,000 every 1 hour and 27 minutes and he had the gall and audacity to say that the ordinary postal worker was over-paid

More Pay For the Bosses

We previously reported how directors pay increases are much higher than their workers wage rises and today's Herald produces new figures that once again confirms that the rich always reward themselves more than those that produce the wealth .

Chief executives enjoyed an average 16% rise in total remuneration in 2007 - a marked acceleration over the prior year's 9% increase - according to accounting giant KPMG's .Moreover, other executive directors on company boards saw their base salaries increase at a similar rate, although finance directors are seeing bigger increases in pay. KPMG noted that the rate of increase in directors' pay is far higher than the national average .

The median total remuneration for FTSE-100 chief executives in 2007 - including new hires as well as promotions - increased to £2.6 million, compared with £2.3 million last year.

Whereas today's Independent is reporting of the story is that The bonanza in boardroom pay has become even more spectacular, according to the latest figures from the accountancy firm KPMG. The typical chief executiveof a FTSE 100 company has seen their total remuneration rise by 12 per cent in the past year, to reach over £2.6m. That's four times the rate of increase in average earnings, leaving the business elite on pay over 100 times what most of their employees earn.

Britain's top corporate earner is probably still Bob Diamond of Barclays Capital, who took home £22.9 million last year, including a performance-related bonus of £10.4 million.

Bart Becht, chief executive of Reckitt Benckiser, the man behind Mr Sheen, on £22 million; Giles Thorley, head of Punch Taverns, making ends meet on £11 million; . Mr Thorley's package is equivalent to 1,147 of his staff's pay.

Taken together, the directors of FTSE 100 companies collectively earned £515 million lastyear – exceeding the GDP of the likes of Eritrea and the Seychelles.

More pay for company directors

It is reported that the typical salary increase of executive directors was 7 per cent last year, well above the UK average of 3.7 per cent.

Potential bonuses were an average 130 per cent of salary, up from 115 per cent the year before - but the actual bonus payout rocketed from 75 per cent to 94 per cent.

"Increases for executive directors are still significantly ahead of those received by the general workforce" the report by accountancy firm Deloitte said.

Enterprising for some

Further to our earlier post on generous retirement pensions for those who hold directorships , we read that Iain Carmichael, the former finance director at Scottish Enterprise had an extra £380,600 pumped into his pension fund .

The annual accounts of the economic and business development quango, which were made public yesterday, reveal that Carmichael retired in March with a golden goodbye worth £539,105 - nearly three times the £200,000 that had been previously estimated.
He received £106,765 in pay in lieu of notice, £5544 for accrued holiday pay, £46,196 for loss of office and £380,600, which was transferred into the Scottish Enterprise pension fund to bump up his retirement pay. Carmichael's pension pot has now swelled to £777,600 - taking the current cash equivalent transfer value of his pension of £397,000 which, according to Scottish Enterprise, in "very basic terms", could be added to the £380,600 paid into his fund in March when Carmichael left the agency.
Scottish Enterprise yesterday confirmed that Carmichael had taken early retirement at age 54 but, as part of his leaving agreement, he was given a full pension "as if he were retiring at 60"

And was it reward for efficiency . Not at all . Scottish Enterprise was accused by MSPs of "wholly dissatisfactory" financial controls in the wake of overspending on the budget by £33m during the 2005/06 financial year. Carmichael admitted mistakes were made in the allocation of public funds. Carmichael was removed from his finance director's position and was taken off the board of directors, and moved sideways into a new position.