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It’s a strange country indeed where the fact that top bosses earn more in two and half days than most people earn all year causes less outrage than a proposal to limit pay at the top.

I suggest looking more closely at who was causing the uproar.

For years we've been told that when the rich get richer, we all benefit.

But ordinary people know that the wealth isn’t trickling down, it’s flooding up.

The irony is that curbing excessive pay would be good for everyone.

At the same time as executive pay has ballooned, the length of time CEOs stay at a particular company has shrunk.

(Image: Rwendland)

Too often they are cashing in rather than aiding the long-term growth of the company.

Even the Institute of Directors has said that it is in firms' own interests to curb excessive pay.

A stable society is built on trust and reciprocity – unfair pay creates the opposite, and that is bad for business.

Some will say we should rely on companies taking voluntary action, or naming and shaming.

You can’t shame the shameless.

More importantly, many firms who want to act can’t – why would a company lead the way in paying less than the going rate?

That’s why we’re looking at a range of options to limit excessive pay relative to lowest paid employees.

Publication of Directors’ pay was originally intended to shame companies into restraining pay.

But it has had the opposite effect, encouraging companies to compete with each other on pay.

Certifying companies who pay fair rates to all would give consumers the power to punish companies that don’t comply.

In big companies, pay is decided by committees made up of part time bosses under the guidance of pay “specialists.”

(Image: Getty)

Unlike lower paid employees, this close-knit group have no real interest in challenging big pay packets.

The Tories have backtracked on their promise to put workers on company boards.

But going further and giving workers a majority on pay committees would give them a voice on this crucial issue, and make sure that it was heard.

Wealth is becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite.

Globally, just 62 individuals own as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity.

In the UK, someone who earns £150,000 pays the same rate of tax as someone on £5 million.

Making the super-rich pay more tax would curb excessive pay and ensure more of the benefits are shared.

On the other hand, we could reward companies that pay fairer pay ratios with a lower rate of corporation tax.

This is not the “politics of envy.”

These are sensible but radical proposals to stop our economy being run in the interests of a narrow elite.

Clive Lewis MP is the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy