YouGov asked 3,000 people this question in a recent poll for the Fabian Society. Here’s what the British public thought were reasonable salaries :
- Prime minister – £135,000
- MD of a top company – £120,000
- A GP – £70,000
- A leading Premiership footballer – £62,000
- A state secondary school headteacher – £52,000
- An experienced hospital nurse – £33,000
- A local beat police officer – £29,500
- A good local plumber – £28,500
- A bus driver – £22,500
- A supermarket check-out worker – £15,000
- A fast-food restaurant worker – £14,000.
This shows the strength of the belief that people should be paid a fair wage for the work that they do. The recently reported massive increases in top executives pay underlines the huge inequities that exist in British society. Surely there must be more fair and reasonable ways of determining salaries than the madness of the marketplace ?
