During the recent TV news coverage about the alleged "cash for laws" scandal in the House of Lords, a familiar face - that of print's very own Lord Gavron - was glimpsed on the red benches, listening intently while a hapless colleague who'd been fingered by the exposé attempted to explain away his actions.

Gavron has been in the news himself of late for far more wholesome reasons. He's proposed a Private Members' Bill that would bring the issue of executive pay into sharp focus. The remuneration of Britain's top bosses is typically a source of conflicting feelings including awe, envy and outrage. The latter in particular has come to the fore in the light of the banking crisis and the controversy surrounding the enormous bonuses paid to some executives who oversaw the collapse.

Executive pay is a thorny issue, especially when viewed from the shopfloor, and the economic situation is likely to lead to increasing scrutiny of the yawning gulf in this country between the very rich and the very poor. Gavron's proposed Companies' Remuneration Reports Bill would require publicly quoted companies to publish - in bold type on the first page of the annual report - the total remuneration of its highest paid boss as a ratio of the average remuneration for the lowest paid 10% of the company's workforce.

Such a stat would certainly be illuminating. Perhaps less so in the printing industry, which has fewer employees on the minimum wage than, say, retailing. But it would be fascinating nonetheless, and it's just a bit of a shame that we have so few print-related plcs left these days anyway. Naturally I have already put in a request asking St Ives what its figure would be, just out of idle curiosity.

But print's most notably and eye-poppingly well-rewarded execs tend to operate in private companies anyway. If Gavron's proposals were to extend to all limited companies it would make for some very interesting - and uncomfortable - reading indeed.