City fat cats taking us to the cleaners

Hospital cleaners give greater value to society than city fat cats, new research has found.

The New Economics Foundation (NEF) discovered that elite city bankers, those in receipt of £1 million-plus bonuses, destroy £7 of value for every £1 they create, while hospital cleaners create more than £10 in value for every £1 they receive in pay. Advertising executives appear to provide even less value to society, destroying £11 per pound created, with tax accountants the worst – they destroy £47 for each pound they create.

The report calls for the establishment of a High Pay Commission – including the introduction of maximum pay differentials – the launching of a green industrial policy to replace the middle income jobs (or ‘missing middle’) of manufacturing, and the building into prices of social and environmental value, i.e. “making good things cheap and bad things expensive”.

NEF also propose the adoption of a transaction tax to reduce high risk and unsustainable trading, the feasiblility of which Left Foot Forward outlined earlier today.

Download a copy of “A Bit Rich: Calculating the real value to society of different professions”