49% for you. Fuck all for us!

Britain's FTSE100 company directors have enjoyed a pay rise of almost 50% in the past year - taking their average earnings to almost £2.7m according to a study by Incomes Data Services (IDS).

Steve Tatton of IDS said: "Britain's economy may be struggling to return to pre-recession levels of output, but the same cannot be said of FTSE 100 directors' remuneration. The generous remuneration packages that FTSE 100 directors now receive indicates a marked improvement in boardroom fortunes."

Well, no actually. That improvement is brought about my the fact that there is a comparison being made to the woeful performance of the past few years.

He added : "At a time when employees are experiencing real wage cuts and risk losing their livelihoods, without further explanation it may be difficult for FTSE 100 companies to justify the significant increase in earnings awarded to their directors."

Difficult? No. Impossible? Yes. So why does it happen?..

Well, it's simple really. The FTSE100 companies' major shareholders are all large financial insitutions such as trusts and pension funds. This means that at AGMs the votes of the smaller shareholders count for next to nothing when agreeing directors' renumeration packages. So the people that control these votes are people who are getting big packages themselves.

They are not going to vote down their mates...

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Boardroom pay rewards are a brazen stitch-up. Reform should start with employee representation on remuneration committees, which would give directors a much-needed sense of reality."

Ed Miliband said: "I think its wrong because what we see is rewards not based on performance, not a something for something culture but a something for nothing culture. We've seen the stock market flat over the last year or so, so not more wealth being created and yet top pay going up by 50%"

Now I happen to think that these two are the dregs of the Earth, so it is quite something that I find myself agreeing with them. Frankly, I would rather stick red hot needles through my eyeballs, but there you have it!

And the government's response? "We recently launched a consultation into company narrative reporting and a discussion paper on executive pay. Proposals being consulted on include how to strengthen the link between pay and performance and provide shareholders with clearer, more relevant information on executive remuneration."

They don't seem to have got the message. Or have they?

Take a look at how many senior members of the government have directorships in FTSE companies...