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FT chief returns part of salary after staff anger
LONDON, Aug 16, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The chief executive of the Financial Times,
John Ridding, is to return some of his pay from last year following staff
criticism, the business daily reported on Thursday.
In a note to employees, he said he would return a 2017 pay increase which
took his total package to more than o2.5 million (2.8 million euros, $3.2
million) — a 25 percent jump on the previous year, the FT said.
Ridding’s pay increase was o510,000, and after tax, the amount returned to
the company will be about o280,000.
He said “the first call on these resources” would be a fund to “support
the advancement of women into more senior roles at the FT and reduce the
gender pay gap”.
The National Union of Journalists welcomed the move but said it “does not
go far enough”.
It had complained that Ridding’s pay appeared to represent more than half
of the FT’s o4 million operating profits from 2017.
The firm said that figure did not represent earnings of its global
business, which were above o20 million, the FT reported.
The NUJ also said the rise “makes a mockery of any concept of fairness”
after “years of negligible pay rises and real-term pay cuts” for staff, as
well as squeezed resources and pension reforms.
A survey by the High Pay Centre and the Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development published this week found the average annual pay packet of
Britain’s top executives jumped 23 percent in 2017, and was 160 times the
average full-time wage.
BSS/AFP/RY/1728 hrs