Next shareholders agree to £4.4m pay package for chief despite opposition

theguardian.com:

Shareholders in Next have backed the company’s decision to pay its chief executive Simon Wolfson £4.4m this year, despite opposition from some investors concerned about the disparity between executive pay and wages of the wider workforce.

Wolfson was awarded a 50% pay rise by the fashion retailer, taking his remuneration to the highest level since 2015.

Before Next’s annual shareholder meeting (AGM) on Thursday, some institutional investors and advisory groups had expressed their concerns over the increase in Wolfson’s pay, and the fact that the company is not a living wage-accredited employer.

Companies which are accredited as living wage employers have committed to paying all of their employees a rate based on living costs, which stands at £9.90 per hour across the UK, and £11.05 in London.

The Church of England pensions board, which manages £3bn of investments and is a Next shareholder, had said in advance of the AGM that it intended to vote against the pay award.

“The executive remuneration system is broken,” said Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer at the pension board.

In a post on LinkedIn, Matthews wrote that there had been previous examples of what he called “excessive pay” at large companies.

“There are occasional rebellions of shareholders, but then attention diverts and we all waste our time trying to decipher ever complicated justifications for excessive pay,” Matthews wrote.

He added that the fund did not object to senior executives being rewarded fairly, but said this was “particularly egregious at a time that many of the workers in many of these companies will be struggling with the growing costs of living.

“You have major increases in executive pay in consumer facing companies such as Next where