Oliver Parry, head of corporate governance at the IoD, said: “The system has evolved just to serve the FTSE 100, when it should cover those who use these companies, those who work at them, and those who invest in them.
“We need to look at transparency: the way pay is calculated is far too complex. I spend most of my time reading annual reports and still find them tough to understand, with performance targets made up of LTIPs, bonuses, and allowances. .”
Peter Swabey, head of policy and research at the ICSA, the governance institute, said: “The problem with corporate pay is that it has become so over-complex and the responsibility is being placed on institutional investors to control pay when their focus is more on performance. It is not really their job to control pay.”
The new pay findings come a month after Prime Minister Theresa May denounced the “irrational, unhealthy and growing gap between what these companies pay their workers and what they pay their bosses”.
