Wage war

The L'Oreal defence employed by some of the IT industry's top-paid CEOs suffered a setback this week, following research from Glass Lewis & Co. According to the governance analysis firm, the likes of Larry Ellison and Yahoo!'s Carol Bartz are decidedly not worth it, earning far more than their actual contribution to their organisations.

In Glass Lewis' salary survey, Bartz was fingered as the highest-earning, poorest-performing executive in the IT sector. Meanwhile, Ellison is said to trouser about $61m annually.

As a dyed-in-the-wool socialist (albeit slightly faded in the wash after 25 years of paying corporation tax) I yearn for the days of Harold Wilson when the highest rate of income tax was 95 per cent and no boss could earn more than 10 times the salary of his poorest-paid worker. In fact, I'm thinking of transforming Dodgi into a co-operative, before retiring and joining a kibbutz. Although if Ellison invited me to one of his all-night yachting shindigs, I might have to have a rethink.