A raw nerve has been struck very quickly with David Farrar over the commitment in Phil Goff’s speech to cap Public Sector Chief Executive pay at the level of the Prime Minister. He describes the policy as “idiocy”.
I wonder how DPF’s friends in the UK Conservative Party would feel about him calling David Cameron an idiot. Because, as Phil Goff said in the speech today, this is something that the UK Tories are also talking about.
Is this true from Kiwiblog..
“Yes that is right. Labour signed off on a formal policy to increase CEO salaries by 5% a year for five years. A policy cancelled by National in 2009.”
Curious?
“A wage freeze for rank and file public servants would only exacerbate the inequities that have arisen as a result of CE salaries growing at about twice the rate of other public servants”
Grant, you have only yourselves to blame for this. Now all of a sudden we have inequalities. You can’t walk out of school and become a CEO, so inequalities will always exist. Trying to level them with this policy in my view is idealistic stupidity.
Grant:
OK, that’s fair enough. My bad — but I think it’s entirely on topic to say that if you want to play the populist card 1) the Commissioner of Police (who, as far as I’m aware is still New Zealand’s highest paid civil servant) isn’t going to be as easy a target as Judy Bailey or Christine Rankin, and, 2) I really think the Kiwi Battlers down the pub get more outraged over front-line cops, nurses or teachers being told to pull their heads in when their pay claims barely exceed inflation.
I totally agree that the CEO salaries need to be capped in that they can not go up by $100k in one year! I was absolutely appalled when I read the article in the Dominion Post where there had been a 6 fold increase in the number of public servants earning over $100k and with CEO’s getting exorbitant bonuses. However, there is no way that a CEO should earn less than our Prime Minister as well, lets face it – CEOs are more qualified than some of our PMs have been – farmers wife anyone???!!! But yes, some restraint is definitely necessary – those on the front line should not have a pay freeze when their bosses seeing such massive increases, increases that more often than not, could employ another staff member. For a nurse who does the work of 5 people, that is a big deal. My only question is why didn’t Labour ask these things when they were in government a year ago when these salary increases and bonuses were being signed off?