Labour MP's demand M&S freeze executive pay

The news that retail executives pay themselves hefty salaries is common knowledge. The prime example is Sir Philip Green, who's family pocketed lucrative dividends from BHS at a time when the retailer was in dire straits.

Now Labour MP's are hounding Marks & Spencer chief executive Steve Rowe, who they demand should accept a freeze in pay for the next three years.

Staff pay at M&S has caught the eye of MP's as they campaign for fair executive pay when retailers are facing troubled times.

Rowe's response was he and other executive directors had already agreed not to take a pay rise in 2017, but offered no further freeze. He also rejected the MPs’ call for the board to reconsider staff pay changes, saying ‘the vast majority’ would be better off. And he argued that M&S customer assistants will be paid more than the recently introduced National Living Wage and that from April next year M&S staff would be ‘amongst the highest paid in UK retail’.

Rowe took over as chief executive in April with a salary of 810,000 pounds. He also received 1.4 million pounds in benefits and bonuses over the past two years.

Photo credit: M&S website