Tackling inequality tackles the climate emergency
The Scottish Greens have pledged to rebalance inequalities to tackle the climate emergency in the party’s manifesto.
This will include laws to limit pay inequality, including the introduction of a pay ratio. This would see a 10 to 1 pay ratio introduced in the public sector, and a commitment to phase it in for private sector firms too.
This would take the form of a legally-binding Corporate Governance Code, limiting the total amount paid to CEOs relative the pay to a fixed multiple of ten times that of their average employee.
The current median CEO pay in a FTSE100 company, including salary, bonus, long-term incentive plan, benefits, and pension contributions, for the financial year ending 2018 was £3.46million a year.
Other measures in the manifesto include the phasing in of a four-day week and expanded trials of a universal basic income, a non-means-tested monthly payment to everyone, which would remove stigma around poverty and provide a better safety net than the deeply flawed UK welfare system.
Commenting, Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater said: “The average FTSE 100 CEO earns 117 times more than the average UK worker. It’s not right that bosses earn factcat salaries when their employees are finding it harder to get by.
“Not only is the growth of wealth inequality a gross injustice, it is also devastating for our planet.
“People can’t think about their carbon footprint when they are starving, but let’s be clear, it isn’t the poor who are speeding up global warming. A celebrity millionaire has a carbon footprint of 10,000 times the average person. As for Billionaires with private jets, they have the power to distort our democracy.
“We urgently need to address this imbalance. For example, studies show a four-day week for a living wage would not only give people more quality of life and allow them more time with their family, but it would also improve productivity.
“A more equal society is not only fairer, it helps us reduce emissions. That’s why the Scottish Greens are demanding climate action at this election.”