Identifying pay ratios not ‘onerous’, says High Pay Centre

All organisations should possess the data required to calculate pay ratios between their top executives and lower-paid employees, according to a report from the High Pay Centre. Written by Paul Marsland, Deputy Director of the High Pay Centre, the report says: ‘This is data they should have, and calculating the ratio ought not to challenge anybody with a decent pass in “O” level/GCSE maths.’

However, it accepts that outsourcing staff and the growing use of zero hours contracts can distort calculations, adding that companies should use clear and consistent employee-group comparators. Yet it remains the case, the High Pay Centre says, that no additional costs need be incurred by UK companies to produce a pay ratio figure.

The report concludes:

‘Give shame a chance: some of the opposition to pay ratios obscures a fear amongst employers of having to justify pay differentials between those at the top of a company and the rest of the workforce by reference to objective criteria. But public companies should be able to justify how pay levels are set.’
‘Pay ratios, just do it’, High Pay Centre, November 2015. To download the report, please visit: http://highpaycentre.org/pubs/pay-ratios-just-do-i...