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Excerpts of introduction :
Why a minimum wage is not enough…
…and why an upper limit is required
From surplus value to social value :
- Top advertising executives destroy £11 of value for every pound they generate.
- Tax accountants destroy £47 of value for every pound they generate
- For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society
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The myths of pay and value :
Myth 10: Pay always rewards underlying profitability
Empirical studies have demonstrated that pay arrangements are geared towards serving the financial interests of managers, not shareholders.
Myth 7: If we tax the rich, they will take their money and run
They depend on a multitude of factors – cultural familiarity, environment, proximity to friends and family, and quality of public services.
Myth 3: Pay differentials don’t matter, so long as we eradicate poverty
Of course poverty matters. But increasingly it is not absolute levels of poverty alone but the differences between people that contribute to social problems
Myth 4: We need to pay high salaries to attract and retain talent in the UK
Our case studies show that high salaries don’t necessarily reflect talent.
Myth 8: The rich contribute more to society
The rich pay proportionately less tax than the poor, and many of our tax streams such as council tax and VAT are highly regressive. The rich even give less in relative terms to charity than the poor.
Myth 9: Some jobs are more satisfying, so they require less payFishing is the most dangerous job in Britain, with roofers and scaffolders also high up on the danger list, and waste recycling collectors are at number 18. Yet in none of these industries are rank-and-file workers highly paid.
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Conclusions
This report is not about targeting any individuals in the highly paid jobs it scrutinises. Neither is it simply suggesting that people in low paid jobs should be paid more. The point we are making is a more complex one – that there should be a relationship between what we are paid and the value our work generates for society.
We need to overcome deep structural issues to act on the implications of this report.
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Note: thanks to Erminio for the link