Corporate Governance

1828 Words4 Pages

Introduction Since almost 2 decades, the corporate governance practices of companies and directors remuneration have been subject to considerable scrutiny. The investors and regulators now are careful to avoid corporate practices that led to this problem, and try to prevent such a tragedy from taking place again. A key issue brought to attention by the crisis was the concern about the pay gap between directors and employees in UK and this issue since then has become a global debate analyzing the inequalities that took place due to the widening of the pay gap. In line with this pay gap problem, it has been stated that “The level of remuneration received by the directors of FTSE100 companies cannot be justified on economic or fairness grounds. Remuneration committees have failed and major reforms are required”. This essay will critically discuss the above statement and discuss its justification. Research on the concerned topic has shown that the pay gap has increased due to a number of reasons such as the significant differences in the basic salary, in addition to the elements of performance based remuneration process which continues to widen this gap. Secondly, the use of market rates to decide remuneration, thirdly balancing short-term and long-term incentives, fourthly, directors’ decision in their own remuneration and lastly good faith of directors and success of the company as a whole. These reasons are further illustrated in detail in the following sections. The first section of this essay will focus on the analysis of directors’ remuneration in the light of current principles set by the UK corporate Governance Code. Section 2 will evaluate the justification of economic or fairness standards set by the UK regulation... ... middle of paper ... ...izational hierarchy, similar responsibilities of the directors and characteristics should be a benchmark for their base salary level and their total remuneration package. Using this scheme the top directors benchmark themselves against their peers in other companies, and being seen to earn a large bonus or options award can boost their self-esteem and exhibit their worth. This has become even more important given the public disclosure of directors pay and bonuses; it’s not the absolute amount of pay that is important, but the relativities to their contemporaries. There is a significant increase in competition between companies and the incentives also influence the directors’ decision to keep working for the company. Thus if companies adopt measures to properly articulate this standard, it can be justified to implement this measure for determining the remuneration.

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