Financial Crisis, Excessive Pay and Fat Cats. Why Employment Scholars Should Start Reflecting on Regulation of Executive Remuneration

In the aftermath of the 2007-2008 financial crisis, flawed variable pay structures of executives were blamed by many for contributing to the build-up of the global financial turmoil, as they allegedly incentivized them to engage in excessive risk-taking. Legislators around the globe decided to regulate remuneration structures of the fat cats in the financial industry with a view to better align their compensation with effective risk management practices. Since 2010, several Directives have been adopted at EU level, imposing on financial institutions a combination of mandatory norms regarding how the variable part of remuneration is to be paid out. Although this topic has been widely investigated by corporate governance researchers, it has been largely neglected by labour law scholars. This article tries to fill this gap, analysing the issues of mandatory pay structure in the financial industry through the lenses of employment law.