Average earnings for FTSE bosses jump 50% in a year

ANTI-CAPITALIST protestors outside St Paul's in the City of London could find their ranks swollen this morning after the news that directors of Britain's top businesses have seen their earnings rise by almost 50 per cent in the last year.
 
The BBC reports that research group Income Data Services has found that the directors of FTSE 100 companies now receive, on average, £2.7m a year, up 49 per cent on 2010. Chief executives have not fared too badly either, their rewards having risen by 43 per cent.
 
Earlier this week IDS reported that average private sector pay increases were running at 2.6 per cent, or half the rate of inflation. In the public sector many workers are facing pay freezes or even wage cuts.  

"Britain's economy may be struggling to return to pre-recession levels of output, but the same cannot be said of FTSE 100 directors' remuneration," said Steve Tatton, editor of the IDS report.
 
Although the base salaries of directors rose by only 3.2 per cent the report also took into account the value of bonuses, which increased by almost a quarter to £906,000 this year, and other lucrative benefits. The Daily Mail points out that the directors now rake in 113 times the national average salary of £24,000 for a worker in the private sector.
 
The news comes as St Paul's Cathedral prepares to reopen a week after it was closed because of Occupy London Stock Exchange protestors who have set up tents outside.
 
Police are preparing to take action to disband the camp, but yesterday the prospect of an eviction prompted the resignation of Canon Giles Fraser, the chancellor of St Paul's, who, despite his liaison job with City institutions, supported the protesters.
 
As he told The Guardian: "St Paul was a tentmaker. If you looked around and you tried to recreate where Jesus would be born - for me, I could imagine Jesus being born in the camp." ·