I can’t be the only one who is troubled by the salary levels of some of the top charity bosses in Scotland and across the UK. To learn that Stuart Earley of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) took home £216,000 last year, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) boss Peter Wanless was paid £162,000 and Harpal Kumar of Cancer Research UK pocketed £240,000 made me think about the millions who struggle to get by on low and minimum wages and donate regularly to these worthy causes.

I am not suggesting anyone leading these organisations and managing hundreds of staff should be paid minimum wage or even average salaries. The jobs are not average and deserve appropriate remuneration. But average wages run at around £27,000 right now and millions are far beneath that level. Surely a salary of no more than 3 or 4 times the average wage should be enough for any charity boss?

Some will argue these bosses have to keep up with the private sector and pay bumper wages but that is just ridiculous. Pay levels among bosses in the private sector are simply obscene. There is no justification for the outrageous pay gaps between the workers and their bosses which now exist. When the gap was 80 and 90 times more in the 1980’s it was pathetic but now the gap is an incredible 183 times greater. According to The High Pay Centre’s research the average FTSE 100 boss is now paid an average of £4.964 million a year, over 183 times greater than the average full time worker.

On what planet can we ever justify such a pay differential? It boils my blood to think about nurses, firefighters, care workers and others in vital professions fighting for average salary levels while these fatcats take home almost £5 million a year per boss.

To make society more equal why not introduce a maximum wage linked to the minimum wage? It works in other European countries so why not here? If a minimum or living wage of £10 an hour was introduced then why not peg it to a maximum wage of 10 times the minimum? That in itself is a big gap but it is a hellava lot better than 183 times greater.

So next time some Tory toff prattles on about the minimum wage being too high let’s argue the case for a maximum wage. That should make them choke on their subsidised Sherries in the Westminster bars.

 

 

BIRTHDAY BLUES

Yesterday was my birthday. It’s always a bummer! It’s a rubbish birthday….. The 4th of January…no one wants to do anything, especially me! At least if your birthday falls before or during Christmas, the party atmosphere is around.

So soon after Christmas means I’m fed up opening presents, opening cards, drinking and eating. By the time my birthday comes round it’s time for dieting and detoxing.

Decorations are down and everywhere looks bare. I really can’t be bothered celebrating. I’d rather wait till another month when I feel like having fun. Can you do that? Change your birthday to another date? To be fair I’m not asking to chop off years or anything like that. Just maybe a few weeks.

My family and friends insist on over compensating by arranging dinners or ‘wee nights’ for me and I love them for that but they know I’d rather stay in.

Tommy did his usual routines of lighting lots of candles on a cake at midnight, singing Happy Birthday and suggesting various different ideas to make my day enjoyable. A cosy meal in a nice restaurant? A visit to the cinema? A play or show? I was to choose.  I chose going for a long walk together and that suited me fine!

Mind you it is the one time of the year when Tommy gets to boast how he is my ‘toy boy’. He’s only 2 months younger but you would think it was 2 years to hear him prattle on. Any more of his cheek and I’ll remind him that I only have the one chin, unlike him…

I am, however in great company when it comes to an early January birthday as today is my wee mummy’s birthday. She has always said having me the day before her birthday was the biggest present she would ever receive. Awhhhhh! Happy Birthday wee Phyllis!