Sir, – Your report that the annual remuneration of an Iseq company chief executive reached €10m for the first time should not go unnoticed (“CRH chief Manifold’s pay reaches €10m in 2016”, March 11th).
The individual in receipt of this income is unquestionably one of the most able and successful businessmen in this country; a trait that deserves appropriate recognition. However, it is worth putting this amount in some context.
A pay package of €10m is 427 times the annual salary of a full-time worker on the living wage (€11.50 per hour, €23,400 per annum). The latter is probably indicative of the salary for cleaners and canteen staff working in the same building.
Put another way, by soon after lunch-time on the first day of work in January, the income of the chief executive has surpassed the annual income of these other staff members.
There is no doubt that the skills and ability of Mr Manifold are scarce; there is probably no more than 80-100 other business men and women in Ireland who could do as successful and effective a job. Internationally, the number is unlikely to exceed 15,000-20,000. However, while such scarcity and success should be recognised, the relative scale of its reward should not be excessive.
The emergence of large divides in the earnings distribution can have destabilising effects on the stability of societies. Such outcomes are not in the interest of individuals, companies or the state.
If large firms are incapable of tempering earnings differentials within their own control, then the State is obliged to intervene. – Yours, etc,
Dr MICHEÁL COLLINS,
Assistant Professor of Social Policy,
University College Dublin,
Dublin 4.