And where does the money come from for these pay rises?

I spent my career in banking the media love to talk about banker bonuses without understanding why people are paid them.

I was mainly in IT so I wasn't investing the bank's money in dodgy financial schemes or blowing it on buying other banks with hidden debts.

Firstly we were not paid overtime I would happily decline a bonus in favour of OT I often worked a 50-60 hour week as did my colleagues. Most years my bonus never covered the OT. So for the vast majority of staff the bonus pool was a cheap way of paying staff OT. The media never mention this.

Secondly on too many occasions I was denied a bonus because the bank had not made enough profit. One time an FX dealer in Dublin made a loss so I was told that even though I had met my goals somebody I never met in another department in another country had blown my bonus.

Thirdly If you earn a £100m dollars for your company why shouldn't you get a big bonus. If it was easy we'd all be doing it and the banks would reduce the bonus. Just like football most blokes can kick a ball around but there aren't many Ronaldo's and Messi's.

Lastly why give a bonus when your company loses money. As I indicated above not everybody can impact a company's profit line and yet they can still contribute. I improved productivity significantly through IT projects which meant as out business grew we didn't have to hire as many staff. That has to be worth something. Or how about you work in the toy department and earn record profits yet the gardening department make massive losses. That is not your fault and if the company is to survive they need you or you will go elsewhere.

There were all sorts of media sneers about RBS post the crash. Why is this CEO getting a big bonus when they are losing money? Well how about they are reducing the losses and getting rid of the unprofitable parts of the business that takes talent and should be rewarded.

Edited by Badger11 (17 Sep 2022 7.59am)

One more point

Well Teddy- if there"s no money at the bottom, I guess we got to skim some off the top!

OK. How much income represents the top? How much tax should they pay?

No idea Teddy- its not my job, unless you want to pay me? But i"m guessing keep the bankers bonus at 200% of salary like the EU wanted, no need to go above 2x salary is there, or a bonus ?. How about hitting the energy companies and the multi nationals like uber with proper tax? Ban the use of off shore tax havens. Perhaps , if these don"t work, hit the pensioners in their pensions- they keep voting CON after all, perhaps its time for them to feel the pain