In Brief
H-share CEO pay 'will catch up' with red-chip counterparts
The pay gap between chief executives who serve in H-share companies and red chips has narrowed, according to a recent report. The study by consulting firm Watson Wyatt found that salaries and bonuses of H-share bosses rose last year by 15.7 per cent and 43.3 per cent respectively. Pay for chief executives of red-chip companies remained flat during the year. Hans Kothuis, the consulting firm's director of executive compensation in Asia-Pacific, said that while remuneration packages for H-share company executives were about half of those of their red-chip counterparts, this disparity was not expected to last long because of the growth rate of H-share firms. The survey also found that the total pay of CEOs of companies listed on the Hang Seng Composite Index rose by 10.4 per cent in 2007.
Unemployment in Japan is highest in two years
Japan's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in August was 4.2 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points from July and the highest in more than two years. Sluggish economic conditions might have deteriorated corporate sentiment on increasing payrolls, the government said. The number of jobless people totalled 2.72 million, up 230,000 from a year earlier, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said in a preliminary report. 'The result added to signs that the Japanese economy has been weakening,' Economy and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said, stressing it was urgent that the government solved the problem. 'Unemployment is one of the most serious problems in a society,' the minister said. The jobless rate, the highest since June 2006, when it stood at 4.3 per cent, was slightly higher than the average market forecast of 4.1 per cent in a Kyodo survey.Kyodo
