Spotlight puts pressure on fat-cat pay rises

PAY rises for company executives remained unchanged last year, although average increases were still well above inflation at 6%, according to a new report today.

A survey of management posts in 38 large companies showed bonus payments fell from 49% of salary in 2003 to 39% last year.

One in four firms surveyed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting deferred a proportion of their executives' bonus payouts last year, up from 19% a year earlier.

'Executive reward packages are beginning to look very different compared to five years ago,' said Richard Lamptey, European Partner at Mercer.

'Increased disclosure, shareholder attention and the state of the stock market have changed the value of packages, the balance between fixed and variable elements and how pay is delivered.

'Media interest and growing scepticism among institutional investors have put executive pay under greater scrutiny. There is now more pressure to keep executive pay level increases in line with rises for other employees.'