Mind the gap: Investors’ role in balancing fairness and competitiveness in executive pay

Executive pay can frequently be a contentious issue and has attracted renewed attention this year as remuneration committees have awarded inflation-busting pay package increases. These have often been justified as catch-up payments following the impact of the pandemic on company finances and in some cases due to ‘one-off’ windfall gains. There are situations where these increases are justified, but when most employees receive smaller, or even below- inflation increases, we have a responsibility as investors to engage with companies on this anomaly.