How much do you earn? How much should you earn?

I think it’s likely that after the recession, the subject of pay will stay in the news. Here are a couple of links: one to an Economist debate about whether the government should try to regulate the pay of top executives and another about pay rates in general.

Here’s the first, a link to the Economist debate in which there’s a discussion about whether it’s any of the government’s business to tell firms what they should pay their senior executives. This is interesting, if only because this didn’t seem to be a question even worth discussing two or three years ago (when all seemed well and society didn’t seem to object to the ‘bonus culture’ now under such intense scrutiny).

For more fun, try this BBC article with a link to a salary quiz. It can seem rude to ask people what they earn and the quiz and accompanying article contain lots of data to shed light on these issues.

Why do people earn the amounts they do? What influences on firms determine the pay levels they award? And what rewards, other than pay, are available?