PRINCELY SALARIES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 972, 28 March 1911, Page 4

PRINCELY SALARIES.

What is the limit of any one man’s worth in salary ? Is it £SOOO, £IO,OOO, or ,£20,000? These are questions which arise out of the action of the United States Steel “Trust” in reducing the salary of the president from ,£20,000 to 10,000. Interesting opinions were given by two London city men, each a member of the governing circle of a huge financial concern with far reaching industrial connections.

“There is a good deal of difference between our own and American methods,” said one, “ but, speaking generally, I do not think £ 10,000 or even £>o,ooo is the limit which might justly be put upon the services of an organiser and controller who has to direct the operations and secure the profits in a business where probably millions of capital are involved. But each case must be judged on its merits because the ability and the loresight demanded vary very much in different circumstances,”

The other city magnate took a rather different view, “In present conditions I think ,£SOOO or £6OOO a year is a reasonable limit to a man’s earnings in the shape of salary, because when his skill and efforts become'worth more than that they should be remunerated, as in practice they so often are, by a percentage in some way or another of the profits of the business. The man who is worth a salary of £IO,OOO a year is a man who for the sake of the business should be one of the proprietors of it.”

The Daily Mail remarks that investigations show that in England salaries of £IO,OOO are very few, notwithstanding many enormous business enterprises. Large salaries are, however, becoming more numerous. The income tax report last year shows that the number of employees with salaries over £SOOO was 202, compared with 109 in the previous year. The total income of these 202 persons was £1,654,000. The salaries of some of our great shipping organisers range between £SOOO and £IO,OOO. Last year the shareholders of Messrs Vickers, Sous, and Maxim agreed to pay a pension of £6OOO for life to Colonel T. C. Vickers, who was resigning the position of managing director.

Nine Cabinet Ministers receive £SOOO a year, but some Ministers receive more. The salary of the Lord Chancellor is £IO,OOO, the Attorney-General has £7OOO a year, and the Solicitor-General £6OOO, and both receive fees which largely augment these amounts. The engineer of the Metropolitan Water Board receives £2500, and the clerk of the London County Council £2OOO.