Insights
Client Alert
The Law of Unintended Consequences: U.K. Employee Class Actions?
November 14, 2008
Christopher Walter
Executive pay is the bete noire of the downturn. Regulators and law-makers around the globe have highly-compensated financiers in their sights. On October 28, Henry Waxman, chairman of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, wrote to nine major U.S. banks participating in the state bail-out, to demand employee compensation metrics for the years 2006-2008, particularly focusing on personnel paid more than $500,000 annually, and the ten highest-paid employees in those years. In Germany, any financial institution participating in the state bail-out must accept, among other requirements, a cap on directors' pay of 500,000 per year.