Control over obscene top pay, with Deborah Hargreaves

Wages for the majority have been stagnant for decades, but a lucky few have enjoyed a pay bonanza. Top company bosses take home in several days as much as most people earn in a whole year. My guest on the podcast today is Deborah Hargreaves, former business editor of the Guardian and a founder and director of the High Pay Centre, an independent think-tank that monitors executive pay. Deborah's new book is called Are Chief Executives Overpaid? In the book, she explains why pay for the top 0.1% has sky-rocketed in the past 20 years. She gives a devastating account of how it has created a vicious circle that destabilizes our economy and undermines social cohesion, demolishing the twisted logic of the chief executives who say: 'I'm worth it', when that means raking in £70m a year. Deborah's book is a rigorous expose of the dysfunctional nature of our 'winner-takes-all' economy, debunking the myths behind top pay and examining a range of pragmatic solutions. Here's episode 410 of Informed Choice Radio, an interview with Deborah Hargreaves of the High Pay Centre.