She said banks would raise basic salaries to compensate, so the new cap would be counter-productive.

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He has argued that banks might get round the rules by raising basic salaries, or operating elsewhere.

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This is harsher than it looks because allowances an extra 60-90% to basic salaries, and because they will in future be taxed in the 40% band, not the 10% one as now.

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Eric Duffelen, of Towers Perrin, a large compensation consultancy, reckons that there is now little difference, at the most senior levels of big business, between basic salaries in Britain and the United States.

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It is likely the reaction this time will be the same -- compensation will rise, but banks in the mid-to-long term won't need to have to pay big basic salaries and slowly businesses that don't need to be in the EU will cease to be.

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But, as in the Philippines, whose lawmakers have failed to pass a budget, the government can continue paying civil servants' salaries and running basic services.

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With the basic range of their next salaries pretty much set, most players have learned to work out a compromise with the club before a hearing.

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