《经济学人》双语：高管薪酬越高，公司绩效就越好？

原文标题
Executive pain
Nothing to whinge about
Is London suffering because bosses there are paid too little?
高管的痛苦
没什么可抱怨的
伦敦的高管们是否因为薪资不高而不满？

Pay for bosses in Britain falls far behind America. Tough luck
英国高管们的薪酬远远低于美国，运气不好

[Paragraph 1]
BRITAIN’S BOSSES are in a funk. Last year, one-tenth of the CEOs running FTSE 350 companies stood down, more than double the tally for 2021.
英国高管们情绪低落。去年，富时350强公司的CEO中有十分之一离职，这一数字是 2021 年的两倍多。

The number of listed companies in London has fallen by two-fifths since 2008. Some of the country’s most treasured companies, such as Arm, a chip designer, are defecting to Wall Street.
自2008年以来，伦敦上市公司数量减少了2/5。一些英国最珍视的公司，如芯片设计公司Arm，正在转向华尔街。

[Paragraph 2]
Many factors lie behind the malaise.
萎靡不振的背后有许多因素。

Could relatively paltry pay for those in charge be a big one? At first glance, yes.
管理层的相对低薪可能是其中一个重要原因吗？乍一看，是的。

America’s top earners are vastly better rewarded than those in Britain.
美国高管们的薪酬比英国高管们高得多。

Take the extraordinary case of Laxman Narasimhan, who used to run Reckitt Benckiser, a London-listed consumer-goods giant.
以拉克斯曼·纳拉辛汉为例，他曾是伦敦上市的消费品巨头“利洁时”的高管。

In that job, in 2021, he got by (somehow or other) while earning £4.7m ($6.5m), excluding his bonus.
2021年，他在该职位上的年薪为470万英镑（约合650万美元），不包括奖金。

When he decamped last year to become the CEO of Starbucks he accepted a package, over $28m, that more than quadrupled his compensation.
去年他转任星巴克CEO时，他接受了2800多万美元的薪酬待遇，是上份工作的四倍多。

[Paragraph 3]
That pay gap was not exceptional. Average rewards are far higher over the Atlantic.
这种薪酬差距并不罕见。大西洋彼岸的美国平均报酬要高得多。

Chiefs of S&P 500 companies enjoy compensation typically more generous than Mr Narasimhan’s: combine salary, bonus, stock awards and other perks and the median package is worth about $33m (£26m).
标准普尔500强公司的首席执行官的薪酬通常比纳拉辛汉的薪酬更高：综合工资、奖金、股票奖励和其他福利，薪酬中位数约为3300万美元（2600万英镑）。

That’s double the going rate of £13m for those running FTSE 100 firms, according to Refinitiv, a data provider.
根据数据提供商 Refinitiv 的数据，富时100指数公司高管们薪酬中位数为1300万英镑，美国高管是英国高管的两倍。

Julia Hoggett, who runs the London Stock Exchange, suggests that means the City scrimps on pay. And if companies won’t dole out top pound, she argues, they harm London’s ability to attract global talent.
伦敦证券交易所的负责人朱莉娅·霍格特表示，这意味着伦敦在薪酬方面很吝啬。她认为，如果公司不支付高薪酬，那么伦敦吸引全球人才的能力将受损。

[Paragraph 4]
The trouble with Ms Hoggett’s argument, however, is that the City brings in more foreign executives than are attracted to other stock exchanges.
然而，霍格特女士论点有问题的地方在于，伦敦金融城吸引的外国高管比其他股票交易所吸引的要多。

Around 45% of Britain’s largest businesses have a boss from overseas, whereas fewer than 10% of those in America are foreign, only 14% in France and 25% in Germany.
在英国最大的企业中，约有45%的高管来自海外，而在美国，只有不到10%的高管是外国人，在法国只有14%，德国有25%。

As for those, like Mr Narasimhan, who leave for big payouts, such cases are vanishingly rare.
至于像纳拉辛汉这样为了高额报酬而离职的人，这种情况非常罕见。

Of the FTSE 100 CEOs who stood down since the start of 2022, the vast majority either retired or moved to another job in Britain.
自2022年年初以来，在富时100指数公司的首席执行官中，绝大多数人要么退休，要么在英国其他公司任职。

[Paragraph 5]
It is likelier that American firms are overpaying, and perhaps needlessly.
更有可能的是，美国公司支付的薪酬过高，或许没必要。

Evidence is patchy linking higher pay for CEOs with better company performance.
首席执行官的薪酬越高，公司绩效就越好，这一说法证据并不充分。

As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy group which produces an annual ranking of overpaid S&P 500 bosses, says the most overcompensated are also those who underperform the index.
股东权益团体 You Sow 每年对标准普尔500强企业高管薪酬进行排名，该团体表示，薪酬过高的高管与业绩不佳的高管，是同一群人。

Alexander Pepper, a professor of management at the London School of Economics, sees something similar in Britain.
伦敦经济学院管理学教授亚历山大·佩珀在英国也发现了类似的情况。

He notes how pay for FTSE 100 bosses accelerated in the 1990s but that had little bearing on the success or otherwise of firms.
他指出，富时100指数公司高管们的薪酬在1990年代加速增长，但这对公司的成功与否影响不大。

Too much, evidently, is out of the control of the boss.
很明显，有太多因素是高管无法控制的。

[Paragraph 6]
America looks more like an outlier, therefore, not a standard-setter.
因此，美国看起来更像是一个异类，而不是一个标准制定者。

Few markets could anyway hope to keep pace with the large sums on offer on Wall Street, where companies are usually larger, harder to run and more at risk from lawsuits than in Britain.
很少有市场能够与华尔街提供的大笔薪酬相媲美，与英国公司相比，美国的公司通常更大、更难经营，而且更容易有诉讼风险。

A better comparison, then, is with Europe. Brits do tend to out-earn their continental counterparts: in 2021, average CEO pay at the biggest companies in France reached the equivalent of $9.5m and in Germany $6.7m.
因此，更好的比较对象是欧洲。英国企业高管的收入确实高于欧洲大陆的企业高管：2021年，法国大型企业高管们的平均薪酬相当于950万美元，德国是670万美元。

Given that gap, institutional investors in British stocks are reluctant to fatten compensation packages more.
鉴于这种差距，英国股票的机构投资者不愿意进一步提高薪酬待遇。

A survey by the London Business School suggests that over three-quarters of shareholders see corporate pay as already too high.
伦敦商学院的一项调查表明，3/4以上的股东认为公司薪酬已过高。

[Paragraph 7]
Investors will probably keep a lid on pay rises.
投资者很可能会限制薪资上涨。

Both Pearson and Unilever have suffered shareholder revolts over remuneration plans this year.
培生集团和联合利华今年都因薪酬计划而遭到股东的反对。

And unlike in America, British law requires that shareholders approve pay packages: dissenting votes are thus more common.
与美国不同的是，英国法律要求股东批准薪酬方案：因此反对票更为常见。

As British households come under ever more economic strain, any signs of excess by company bosses will also grow harder, politically, to justify.
随着英国家庭面临的经济压力越来越大，任何公司高管的过度行为在政治上也会越来越难以自圆其说。

Expect more rebellions, not fewer.
预计因薪酬离职的情况会越来越多。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量671左右）
原文出自：2023年6月24日《The Economist》Britain版块

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Irene

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
富时指数FTSE（Financial Times Stock Exchange）是英国金融时报与伦敦证券交易所合作开发的一系列股票指数。FTSE指数是国际上广泛使用的股票市场指数之一，用于衡量英国股市的整体表现。FTSE指数根据市值和行业分类对英国股票进行加权，以反映不同行业和公司的相对表现。其中最著名的指数包括FTSE 100、FTSE 250。FTSE 100指数是FTSE系列中最重要的指数之一，包含了英国市值最大的100家上市公司。该指数涵盖了各个行业，包括金融、能源、零售等。FTSE 250指数包含了英国市值排名101至350的公司，覆盖了更多中小型企业。该指数通常被认为较FTSE 100更具代表性，反映了英国经济的更广泛方面。FTSE350是指是350个最大的公司的份额指数被列出在伦敦证券交易所。FTSE350指数看作为英国的经济的成功晴雨表。

【重点句子】（3个）
America’s top earners are vastly better rewarded than those in Britain.
美国高管们的薪酬比英国高管们高得多。

Evidence is patchy linking higher pay for CEOs with better company performance.
首席执行官的薪酬越高，公司绩效就越好，这一说法证据并不充分。

America looks more like an outlier, therefore, not a standard-setter.
因此，美国看起来更像是一个异类，而不是一个标准制定者。