Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, has issued a robust defence of his pay before a showdown with some big shareholders in the world’s biggest advertising group that is shaping up as a test case for executive remuneration in the UK.
Writing in the Financial Times before WPP’s annual meeting next week, Sir Martin warned that if Britain wanted private sector world champions it needed to pay competitively.
“The compensation debate in the UK now seems to have shifted, from undeserving bankers paid for failure and from payment for performance, to what is fair pay. WPP is not a public utility. If the government or institutions believe pay is excessive, tax it. Do not fiddle with the market mechanism.”