IT is not the kind of language we are used to hearing from Conservative Prime Ministers even one as desperate for friends as the current one, but according to Theresa May, British businesses who pay excessive salaries to their bosses represent the unacceptable face of capitalism. Mrs May also appears to be willing to take some action too, with the unveiling this week of new laws which will force listed trading companies to reveal – and justify – the pay ratio between those at the top and those paid the average salary. But will it make a difference?

The problem the law seeks to tackle is certainly real enough. The average gross salary in Scotland is £22,918, but we also know that pay is so low in some cases that many of the victims of modern poverty are actually in work. And how does the pay of executives compare? The answer – even now, knowing what we know about some of the worst excesses of pay – is shocking. The average pay among chief executives of Scotland’s 39 trading companies is 24 times the mean Scottish salary.

The measures which the UK Government plan to introduce have some potential to make a difference. As well as forcing listed trading companies to reveal and justify the pay ratio between bosses and the average worker, a public register of companies will include the names of companies where a fifth of shareholders have objected to executive pay. The theory is that the transparency will be the enemy of inequality or, to quote another Conservative PM, David Cameron, sunlight will be the best disinfectant.

However, there have to be serious doubts about how effective the list on the pay gap will be. The Government has already done something similar on the gender pay gap. From April this year, companies with more than 250 employees have been required to carry out an audit and publish information on the gap. But the compliance so far has been slow (they have until April next year to comply) and the suspicion must be that the companies will simply take the hit when the list is published and carry on as before.

If the UK Government is really serious about dealing with the pay gap, it will have to be aware of this risk and be prepared to take further action should the public lists prove ineffective. For instance, there is some evidence that the recent shareholder revolts have had an effect in reigning in executive pay so could shareholders be given more clout?

However, whatever happens, tackling the pay gap and inequality is about much more than attempting to control the behaviour of companies. The UK Government could do more to limit the use of zero-hours contracts for instance. It could introduce a living wage. And it could take steps to properly rebalance taxation in the UK so that the very rich are prevented from dodging taxes and overall burden is distributed more fairly. Exposing the pay gaps in British companies is a good idea. But unless the Government goes much further, it is hard to see how we can take that promise to deal with the unacceptable face of capitalism very seriously at all.