In addition to the basis academic research that occupies my working time and is funded by national competitive research funding agencies such as the Australian Research Council, I also do commissioned work for various organisations, mostly unions and community groups. That income allows me to also cross subsidise the basic research and is how a research centre in a modern Australian university manages to stay afloat. In the latter work, I am always confronted by government lawyers or the experts the government hires to challenge my assessment of reasonable pay increases for union members in matters that appear at the Federal Fair Work Commission or the state-level Industrial Relations Commissions. I am always appalled by the willingness of these government agencies to spend millions on high paid consultants and lawyers just to stop their workforce enjoying a pay rise. The same agencies look the other way when their executive pay is in focus. And as a result of wage suppression for workers and the free-for-all at the top, the ratio of executive to average earnings is skyrocketing. This trend summarises the inherent inadequacy of capitalism for most of us who depend on real wages growth to enhance our material standard of living in economies that are growing. Two recent reports, one in the UK and one in Australia highlight the indecent state of affairs where CEOs can earn more than 130 times the annual salary of the median full-time UK worker and 55 times the annual salary of the average full-time worker in Australia. The top paid CEO in Australia gets 316 times the average, full-time salary in Australia.