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A worker on the average salary paid in the giant UK retailer Marks and Spencer would need to work for 1200 years to earn the same as what Marc Bolland, the new boss of the company, will be paid this year, said UNI Deputy General Secretary Philip Bowyer.



"Of course it is an exceptional year for Mr Bolland," Bowyer said.



Included in his 15 million pounds package this year is a special payment of 7.5 million pounds compensation for leaving his former job. That's a kind of one-off transfer fee which will not be repeated. In a real bare-bones rock-bottom year for Mr Bolland his annual salary might be reduced to 979,000 pounds plus a small bonus of 2.5 million pounds.



So in the worst of years, the average employee would only have to work for 278 years to get the same as the boss would be paid a year.



According to the British newspaper the Guardian,Bolland will more than double his current remuneration. He was employed by Morrisons, another UK retailer much bigger than Marks and Spencer. Doubling the salary for half the work can't be a bad deal. Nobody knows what Marks and Spencer think about it. But then nobody has asked them.



"UNI believes that CEO pay should be kept at 20 times the average salary in the company," Bowyer said. "At that level Mr Bolland could still live comfortably."