What's it got to do with you, Matey?

We find it difficult to understand this mindset:

Senior executives in the UK’s top 100 companies took just 33 hours to be paid more than the typical worker’s annual salary, according to data that unions say should be a “source of national shame”.

Well, OK, perhaps not all that difficult. We’re aware that jealousy is a constant in human affairs. But why is what consenting adults do with their own property a matter for shame in the slightest?

Such senior executives are the employees of the shareholders in those companies. The shareholders own the things after all - that being the definition of both ownership and shareholding. If people decide that their employees should be well paid then why is that a matter of shame? Why, even, is it a matter for the TUC to comment upon?

There are a number of subsidiary arguments of course, efficiency wages, the rarity of the required skills, punishing work weeks and all that. But the base and root question here is what’s it got to do with you, Matey?