Rejected petition Link Wages of Companies' Highest and Lowest Earners

We call on Parliament to debate the extension of the proposals of Will Hutton's Fair Pay Commission to the private sector- by ensuring that the best-paid employees are paid no more than 20 times the wages of the lowest-paid.

Britain now has one of the most unequal societies in the developed world, with over 40% of the country's wealth in 5% of the population. Moreover, repeated studies, and the recent financial crisis, have demonstrated that there is no improvement in performance gained through increases in executive pay.

We therefore call on the government to implement legislation to compel all private and public sector organisations to pay their highest-paid beneficiaries no more than twenty times the hourly wage of the lowest-paid. This would not outlaw high levels of pay outright, but would provide recognition that the work of the lowest-paid is as necessary as the work of the highest-paid for the success of business, government, and society as a whole.