Bankers are drain on society: Study

London, Dec. 14: What’s the value of work? An economic think-tank in Britain on Monday called for fundamental rethink of how the value of work is recognised and rewarded after it calculated that bankers are a drain on the society and hospital cleaners have more value.

The New Economics Foundation, in its A Bit Rich report, analysed three low paid jobs — hospital cleaner, recycling plant worker and childcare worker – and three highly paid ones – a City banker, an advertising executive and a tax accountant to look at what they contribute to society.

Investment bankers in the City of London are among the best paid in the UK economy, but they destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate, the think-tank calculated. While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers are being handsomely rewarded for bringing the global financial system to the brink of collapse, the think-tank added.

In contrast, childcare workers have a greater value for the society: they generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society for every £1 they are paid.

Advertising executives are a bigger drain on the society as compared to bankers, think tank concluded.