Vince Cable plans to widen disclosure of executive pay

The Observer reports Sunday’s idea off the summer Liberal Democrat policy production line:

All companies with more than 250 employees should be forced to publish the salaries of their highest earners and told to consult their employees on executive pay, Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat business secretary, will say on Sunday.

The radical idea, which would involve new legislation, is to be included in the Liberal Democrats’ election manifesto and will be a key demand of the party in any negotiations on a new coalition deal with either the Tories or Labour for the next parliament.

Under Cable’s blueprint, companies would also have to publish details of median pay levels for staff so that they could be compared with the amounts paid to the highest earners in each firm.

As with all the others, strictly speaking, this is a proposal for inclusion in the manifesto rather than a decision on the manifesto. The pre-manifesto document will get debated at the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow this October.

Take a look at my archive of policy posts to see the other proposals recently launched (including one that even the Daily Mail liked).