Shock ricocheted around the world of social research this week with the sudden news of the imminent closure of the High Pay Centre (HPC). Founded in 2011 by the former Guardian business editor Deborah Hargreaves to focus on analysis of extreme pay at the top and the widening pay gap between CEOs and their average employees, its closure feels like the death of an idea.

Others campaign on tax and redistribution but the HPC was concerned with “predistribution”. It was unique in looking at the origins of inequality in pay and control over pay rates. Its annual report is always covered, even by rightwing media, because each year it reawakens a sense of disbelief at the way we live now. Why would the median FTSE 100 CEO need £4.4m this year to do his (yes, mostly still his) gratifyingly high-status job? Why?

There will be no more HPC reminders of “high pay day”, well-reported as “fat cat day”. This year it calculated that it took the median FTSE 100 CEO less than two and a half days in January to be paid what a median full-time employee earns in a year. It shocks, it’s put aside, forgotten, then amazes all over again each year.

The HPC kept reminding us that UK incomes are the second most unequal among rich countries, outstripped only by the US. It was forensic in analysing how our corporate governance system underpins this great dysfunction. Britain is an outlier, with no nod towards democratising boards. No FTSE 100 company has appointed a worker director to its board, while in 13 EU countries plus Norway employee representation is not only socially expected, but legally required in “co-determination” models. A lack of that voice at the top means just........

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