While workers face wage freezes or real-terms pay cuts, those who top the market food chain are enjoying ever-bigger payouts.
Bosses of the FTSE 100 companies saw their pay rise by an average of 49% in the last financial year.
According to a report from Income Data Services the bulk of the increase is down to a sharp rise in bonuses, which leapt from an average of £737,624 in 2010 to £906,044 this year.
Workers’ real wages meanwhile dropped by 2.7%, according to the Daily Telegraph (13 July 2011).
Free market capitalism is to blame; economist Nouriel Roubini said: “[it is] a deeper truth that unfettered free markets… have not benefited all and some of their pernicious consequences are associated with… rising inequality.”
The cause is the greed of capital, using the economic crisis as an excuse to trim costs and slam workers rather than taking a hit on profit margins.
We need to abolish profit altogether and improve conditions for the working class — which can only be achieved by smashing capitalism from within.
