V?ince Cable, Britain’s outspoken business secretary, is fulminating about “outrageous” executive pay awards – and threatening government action. Across the developed world, bosses’ earnings are bouncing back as profits recover from the recession. The political temperature is rising.

“There’s a serious problem, because executive pay has got way out of line with company performance and you’re getting rewards for failure, and the average of high-level pay has gone far ahead of share prices,” growls Mr Cable, a member of the junior party in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. “We’re looking at various ways of dealing with it.”

After a pause during the recession, bosses’ earnings are now increasing at the most sensitive time – just as tax rises and public spending cuts are eating into the already stagnant incomes of low and middle earners. Even some corporate leaders are worried about the damage this could do to already low levels of public trust in business.