Britain Looks to Address Inequality With Executive Pay Measures<br />The proposals include plans to force all publicly listed companies to publish their wage ratio, comparing their chief executive’s salary with<br />that of the average worker, as well as the creation of a register that “names and shames” firms that faced shareholder opposition over executive pay levels.<br />LONDON — Worried by a long-term rise in inequality, Britain announced on Tuesday a series of measures aimed at increasing transparency over executive compensation, hoping to ramp up pressure on companies<br />that offer lavish salaries for bosses but restrict pay for regular employees.<br />The average chief executive of a company listed on the FTSE 100, the country’s benchmark stock index, made 129 times<br />as much as a regular employee last year, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.<br />Dirk Jenter, an associate professor of finance at the London School of Economics who has surveyed executive compensation, said<br />he had doubts about whether the measures would make much difference and warned that some might even be counterproductive<br />In one case, investors in the energy company BP protested against the $19.6 million compensation package awarded to<br />the company’s chief executive, Robert W. Dudley, in 2016 — a majority voted against the deal in a nonbinding vote.
