Are big bonuses in big firms small beer?

It’s September, and politics is slowly but surely getting back into full swing. Hence the national media has largely lost interest in ‘riots’ in the regions.
So today we’ve seen a renewed debate about whether the Government needs to inject a few quid into the economy and a report by the High Pay Commission suggesting FTSE 350 directors have been lunching on big bonuses while their companies have been going nowhere fast.
The debate about the economy will run and run, but reports which suggest the rich are getting richer while the rest of us struggle is more likely to lodge in the public psyche because it plays to that well-known prejudice that life’s not fair.
Two points about the Commission’s report.
One is that the High Pay Commission isn’t actually a Commission in the naturally understood sense. While Commissions are traditionally set up by government to hold open inquiries into matters of serious public concern, the High Pay Commission is infact a one-year project set up by a London think-tank called Compass, which styles itself as ‘promoting left-wing debate’.
Those origins are reflected in the Commission’s membership and experts panel, which doesn’t include any high-profile business owners or business organisations, and is comprised mainly of academics, consultants and writers concerned with equality and civil society. It also has strong media connections, including former Guardian and BBC journalists.
Nothing wrong with that – everyone is entitled to a view and I’m guessing it’s unlikely the FTSE 350 would collectively invite public inquiry into how much its executives trouser each year in handsome bonuses.
All the same, the name is a bit misleading without explanation.
My big beef is that this self-elected, well-connected body puts so much emphasis on a sector which is unrepresentative of business at large.
So we’ve had another day of headlines about business which encourage the public to think that the commercial world is full of nothing but ruthless fat-cats who are out to screw you for everything they can get.
And that’s an unrepresentative cliche. The High Pay Commission would score some more relevant points if it asked the UK’s vast army of private business owners what they think of their Stock Market cousins. They’d get some pithy responses, I can tell you.
But missing a trick is not the point.
Most businesses are run by people who work their socks off, take considerable personal financial risks, and do it because they are motivated by a desire to make it on their own rather than squirrel away enough readies for a yacht in the Med.
The High Pay Commission may be making some valid points. But stopping FTSE bosses lining their pockets is unlikely to make life better for the public at large. The media focus on it is all a bit London-centric.
Right now, a Commission into what government could and should be doing to provide a cogent business support service for small firms would be far more useful and far more relevant to where our economy is at.