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.

In this hard-hitting book, Deborah Hargreaves 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 GBP70m a year.

A rigorous expose of the dysfunctional nature of our 'winner-takes-all' economy, this book debunks the myths behind top pay and examines a range of pragmatic solutions.

About the Author

Deborah Hargreaves is former business editor of the Guardian and a founder and director of the High Pay Centre, an independent think-tank that monitors executive pay.

Reviews

"Nothing is so politically alienating as the way society has lost control over obscene top pay. No-one is as trenchant - and readable - as Deborah Hargreaves in her expert analysis."
-Polly Toynbee, The Guardian

"In her extremely valuable book, Deborah Hargreaves demonstrates that the explosion in executive pay overwhelmingly reflects rent extraction. That is economically damaging, because performance-related pay encourages poor decision-making, and socially destructive, because it undermines the legitimacy of capitalism."
-Martin Wolf, The Financial Times

Book Information
ISBN 9781509527793
Author Deborah Hargreaves
Format Hardback
Page Count 140
Imprint Polity Press
Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Weight(grams) 227g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 15mm