Jan 15, 2017
John Lewis structure complicates pay scrutiny
The store chain's name crops up every time MPs rail against the mistreatment of shop-floor workers and excessive executive pay. The pay restraint at the top is apparent: the highest-paid boss, chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield, receives at most 75 times that of the average pay of workers. MPs are now calling for all executive remuneration schemes to be simplified and for companies to declare how much the pay of top executives exceeds that of the average worker. The defined benefit pension scheme - set in place in the 1960s to pay inflation-proofed incomes based on salaries - has eaten into profits and become a huge risk to the group's long-term survival, says Sir Charlie. Government proposals to force companies to disclose the ratio between top bosses and average workers' pay is no bad thing.
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