FAIR PAY: HOLYROOD DEBATE TO HEAR GREEN BID TO CURB SENIOR SALARIES
Holyrood will this week debate a motion from the Scottish Green MSPs calling for action on the growing inequality in workers' pay packets.
The median salary in Scotland is £26,000 yet research by the Green MSPs suggests there are 43 chief executives of public bodies earning six-figure salaries, while the £1.1million pay packet of supermarket giant Tesco is 88 times the annual earnings of a checkout operator.
The boss of NHS Lothian gets 13 times the salary of a nursing assistant, the CEO of Scottish Enterprise gets 14 times the salary of a business enquiry handler, and the chief of Scottish Water gets 27 times the salary of a water treatment operator.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday's debate, Patrick Harvie, Green MSP and finance spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said:
"If we want a fair and successful society we must close the gap between the highest and lowest incomes. Successive governments have allowed our economy to become hollowed out by big business, and have allowed senior salaries to soar ahead while pay for frontline workers is squeezed.
"The recent attempt by RBS to pay bonuses worth 200 per cent of salaries demonstrates the need to shake things up. The Scottish Government should investigate ideas such as maximum wage ratios which would limit the difference between the lowest and highest paid in an organisation.
"We must encourage big employers in the private sector to lift the wages of the lowest paid. Scottish ministers could lead by example and start by publishing the pay ratios of the public bodies they control."