sections:
A bonus culture is permeating Britain. Intended to improve performance, it is actually fuelling inequality, encouraging mis-selling, malpractice, short-termism and undermining the image of British business.
- Directors’ pay has soared in the last two decades and bosses now earn an average of £3 million, more than 100 times as much as their employees.
- More than 150,000 of the very wealthiest people are so-called ‘non-doms’ who live here but pay no UK tax
- At least 3,000 City bankers and traders earn bonuses of more than £1 million a year and the best paid private equity chiefs can earn more than £100 million a year
- Inequality is greater than at any time in the last 40 years
- The bonus culture was a key factor in corporate failures like Enron and Marconi
- It has also created a series of mis-selling scandals from personal pensions to payment protection insurance
- The City bonus culture resulted in financial instruments so risky they brought down Northern Rock, a host of American banks and almost caused the collapse of the global financial system.
- Private equity bonuses are responsible for mass sackings and under-investment in their target companies
This book will expose the damaging effect of the bonus culture, analyse how it occurred and assess what can be done to change it.
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