British citizens believe that the Prime Minister and top footballers are overpaid, according to a poll conducted as part of a major research project into fairness in the UK.
London, Aug. 25 : British citizens believe that the Prime Minister and top footballers are overpaid, according to a poll conducted as part of a major research project into fairness in the UK.
The YouGov survey of 3,000 people conducted for Labour think-tank Fabian Society, found that a reasonable pay packet for Prime Minister Gordon Brown was 135,000 pounds, which is 52,000 pounds less than his actual salary of 187,000 pounds.
The survey also showed that people considered Premiership football stars to be worth only 62,000 pounds a year, a tenth of their average earnings.
A reasonable annual salary for the chief executives of top companies was suggested to be not more than 120,000 pounds, which is far less than the FTSE 100 average of more than 750,000 pounds.
While only 13 per cent of people surveyed said that top managers in leading companies should be paid more than 500,000 pounds, only nine per cent thought this salary to be fit for Premiership footballers.
People also said that best-selling authors should receive only 80,000 pounds a year, reports the Independent.
The pay of a secondary-school headteacher was seen as fair. The poll put reasonable salaries as 62,000 pounds, just below the real average of 63,600 pounds.
People also favoured a pay rise for experienced nurses from their average salary of around 26,000 pounds to 33,000 pounds a year, and a pay hike for plumbers from around 24,000 pounds to 28,500 pounds.
Supermarket check-out workers, who could earn around 12,000 pounds a year, were said to be worth 15,000 pounds, while staff in fast-food outlets were thought to be worth 14,000 pounds.
Only six per cent people thought that best-selling authors were worth one million pounds, while only five per cent thought the same for top industrialists.
Tom Hampson, one of the report's authors, said that the findings indicated people's reaction against high earnings, and that they wanted more fairness in society.
ANI