The Paula Principle

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More

Gaps, EQ, PP

Two quick items. First, Torsten Bell of the Resolution Foundation posted an update chart from UCAS, confirming the continuing gap between women and men in university entrance. The chart below shows the unmistakeable trend since the crossover point in 1996. Since the Paula Principle came out in 2017, the gap has continued to widen - and it seems now that the numbers of male applicants has actually turned down. So we will soon have getting on for two female graduates for every male. Previous posts have shown how this increasing female/male qualification gap has not effectively closed - or even much narrowed - the male/female careers gap. So the PP…
Read More

‘Part-time’: not a lot of progress

I've always greatly valued the work of Timewise, promoting the value of jobs which do not fit the conventional full-time model. Their latest report, A Question of Time, is a useful update on people's perceptions of part-time work: who wants it, why they want it (or don't), how it is valued and so on. The report is based on analysis of Labour Force Survey data; an Optimum poll of 4000 workers; and some focus groups. Lots of useful information - but one glaring omission, which I'll come to. The issue is highly relevant to the Paula Principle because of the way being in a 'part-time' job impedes career progression for…
Read More

GPG ‘decrease’ – but how slow, and age remains crucial

The ONS has produced its latest stats on the gender pay gap - and they don't make pretty reading. For readers not already aware there is a big difference between the 'headline' figure, which refers only to full-time employees, and the overall figure which includes part-timers. The fact that the former is treated as the 'main' figure is significant: it both reflects, and itself confirms, the lower status of part-timers. The GPG is almost twice as high for 'all employees' as it is for full-timers. In any case, there was no progress last year. As the ONS puts it: In 2023, the gap among full-time employees increased to 7.7%, up…
Read More

Further convergence – on part-timing over 50

Convergence is a significant part of the PP picture - or rather reverse convergence, ie the prospects for men converging on female patterns of work and career, rather than vice-versa. The previous post was about some convergence in the peaks of earnings by women and men over the life course. Now I learn of a different type of convergence - or, in fact, crossover: of working patterns in the older age group, according to ONS data, reported in a recent Guardian article by Amelia Hill. As background, there are a number of factors and trends at work here, which are worth listing: Older people are an increasing segment of the…
Read More

Convergence on earnings – peak timings

One of the key themes in the Paula Principle is to scrutinise the notion of convergence between men and women's career patterns. The PP is founded on the fact that women's qualification levels have not only converged on men's but long ago surpassed them - crossover rather than convergence. Meanwhile respective earnings have only slowly drifted close together, so the careers gap remains large. As a result the female/male competence gap is increasing faster than the male/female careers gap is closing. In anything other than a simplistic sense, convergence is not happening. But this is not the key point. Talk of convergence has a dangerous tendency to reinforce the idea…
Read More

Gender pensions gap: gloom and a possible ray

A couple of fairly gloomy charts, I'm afraid, but I find it constantly important to get the message across about how the Paula Principle affects the whole life course. Indeed, its biggest impact is on the second half of people's lives: first, because the gender earnings gap is greatest for older workers, and secondly because this carries on into life after work. Remember that by now, because of the competence crossover (women surpassing men in qualifications etc) a lot of these women pensioners are better qualified than their male counterparts. First the international picture, shown in the OECD chart below. My techno-incompetence (lopping off the figures from the vertical axis)…
Read More

Gender Equality: wide-ranging from OECD

The latest OECD report, Joining Forces for Gender Equality, is a massive effort, covering GE-related issues not just in the usual areas of education and work, but across sectors such as energy and with some highly topical specific chapters, for example on Ukrainian women. Not bedtime reading, but definitely worth checking out. Here are a few Paula-related selections. GPG reporting. The report describe (p28) how countries are increasingly using reporting measures on the Gender Pay Gap to build a base for developing action. It highlights a Swiss tool which helps companies do this - https://www.logib.admin.ch/home. Parl-time work. The gender distribution of this has changed very little over the last decade.…
Read More

Transparency and audit, plus OECD on gender and skills

Yesterday I attended a TUC conference on AI - a lot to take in, some of it quite frightening. The TUC has been doing excellent work on the challenges AI presents in the workplace. One of the speakers was Robin Allen, a KC who has long experience of legal issues to do with equality. I spoke to him briefly at the end as he'd referred to the Gender Pay Gap in his remarks. To my surprise he was dismissive of the GPG transparency moves. Robin's view is that only pay audits which reveal what men are paid will have an impact. I'm not convinced; for one thing the obligation (on…
Read More

Finance Curse and Brain Drain

A couple of days ago I took part in a webinar organised by the admirable Transparency Task Force. The TTF promotes reform of our dubiously accountable finance sector. The speaker on this occasion was Nicholas Shaxson. I'd read and enjoyed his exposé of tax havens, Treasure Islands, some years ago. I'd also read and been impressed by his more recent The Finance Curse, which argues that the UK suffers from its overdeveloped finance sector just as other countries have suffered from over-reliance on a natural resource such as oil. Of course we need banks and financial institutions. They enable businesses to start up and grow, and individuals to use their…
Read More

IWD: time to restart

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and I thought this was the time to get going again on the PP blog, which I've neglected for months. Technology dictated otherwise, so I'm a day late... We had the usual surge of impressive stats underlining the issues still impeding progress towards equality at work. I want to focus on just three of these. The first is the way the GPG expands hugely over the life cycle. The TUC's excellent annual report shows this so clearly: This is very familiar. But in recognising how this age profile has persisted over the years we need to remember that the qualifications profile by age has changed.…
Read More