Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More

Social mobility, occupational maturity and an early pay gap

The Social Mobility Commission's report on the influence of social class on professional progression deservedly got wide coverage.   It moves the debate along from looking only at entry into different professions, to show how people from different social origins do or do not make progress and are or are not rewarded once they have been working for a while.  The analysis shows that those who come themselves from the lower social classes earn on average £6800 less - 17% - than their peers who themselves originate from the professional classes. The class gap is bigger for men than for women.  But the report points out that there is a double…
Read More

Equal Pay Day; and an appeal

Yesterday the Fawcett Society reminded us: "Thursday 10th November 2016 is Equal Pay Day (EPD). This means that women are effectively working for free from 10th November to the end of the calendar year, because on average they earn less than men. EPD is calculated using the mean full time gender pay gap , which is currently 13.9%." In Paris there were reports that a day earlier women downed tools for a couple of hours at the end of the day, reflecting the fact that the pay gap is a fraction bigger in France.  I believe that they returned to work the  next day, however. Now for the good news:…
Read More

Salutary reminders on pay gaps and progress

There has been a steady trickle of important PP-relevant analyses in recent weeks.  Here are just two of them. First, the TUC shows how the gender pay gap is biggest for women in their 50s, at about £8500 per year, or £85000 over the decade.  This is a powerful reminder that we need to look at these effects over the whole of the working life.  Of course much of the gap derives from the point at which women have children.  For mothers in their 50s the gap is 42%, and so the crucial remedies are better childcare provision and parental leave, with encouragement for men to share child-rearing responsibilities. But…
Read More

Working hours again: UK and US

The recent IFS report on the gender pay gap attracted huge coverage - top of the news, and all over the front pages.  It's the first of a series the Institute is doing on this issue, which is excellent news;  I look forward to seeing what comes out. The report does an excellent job in distinguishing between the various types of wage gap, in two major respects.  First, it shows the need to distinguish different groups according to the hours they work.  Obviously, the hourly difference is far smaller than the weekly difference, since women work fewer hours: it shrinks from 36% to 19%.  It shrinks further, to 16%, for…
Read More

Kevin Roberts and vertical ambition

I doubt that I share much of a worldview with Kevin Roberts, who recently resigned as chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi.  That's a powerful position - but S&S is now owned by a parent company, Publicis, and they effectively showed him the door after his remarks about the low numbers of women in senior positions in advertising being 'not a problem'.  (All six of the big advertising agencies have male CEOs.)  'The fucking debate is all over' was apparently his verdict. "Kevin Roberts has an international reputation for an uncompromisingly positive, inspirational leadership style, and an ability to generate ideas and emotional connections that accelerate extraordinary value" is how Kevin's…
Read More

Jazz gigs and stag parties: fresh approaches to long hours

In the past week I've had two conversations closely related to the Paula Principle, and to each other, in rather unlikely settings.   Both dealt with the issue of whether professional occupations such as lawyers and surveyors needed to require people to work 12-14 hours days in order to make progress up the professional ladder. Nigel plays baritone sax in the the band where I also play (the South London Jazz Orchestra, since you ask, see www.slcm.org.uk).   We were waiting for our gig to kick off in a pub in Tulse Hill on a rather damp Sunday afternoon recently, and so started chatting about non-band things.   Nigel has…
Read More

Teamwork

I've been reading a couple of stimulating books which deal, from very different angles, with the future of work.  Martin Ford's The Rise of the Robots sets out some pretty scary pointers to just how much work might be handed over to automated processes: not just routine manual processes but quite a lot of what we now consider to be intellectual and non-routine.  He suggests that we may be heading quickly towards the scenario sketched out by Keynes, where people will work far far fewer hours - the difference being that in the modern version there will be colossal inequalities as the benefits of automation will go to a very small…
Read More

Womenomics

I confess I'd never heard of womenomics before, but an interesting piece in last weekend's Financial Times put me right. It's based on a profile of Miho Otani, a Japanese woman who commands a 3500 tonne warship.  She is intended to represent Prime Minister Abe's drive to have women occupy 30% of the country's management position by 2020 .  ('Abenomics' was coined to describe the PM's economic strategy, hence the fellow-neologism.)  The initiative, apparently, stands little chance of reaching its target. In a way Japan, with Korea, encapsulates the Paula Principle more than any other country.  Japanese women are highly educated.  Young Japanese women enter the labour market in large…
Read More

Grandparenting and the club sandwich

An interesting piece in yesterday's Financial Times on grandparents (in the main, grandmothers) who find themselves an essential part of their children's (mainly daughters) childcare arrangements.  This is, often, at the expense of their own career, which may have just been taking off again. The lead story (for those of you who aren't behind the FT's paywall) is about an accountant, Tracey Conway, who had moved up from 2 days a week to 5 days - and has now gone down again to help look after her grandson, as her daughter pursues her career at the bank.  She finds much to be happy about it, especially her strong link with the…
Read More

Why any skills assessment can’t ignore older women

Older women are habitually treated as marginal figures in the labour force .   I've just come across some figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that really drive home why this should no longer be the case. Here are the key points: 1.  The participation rate for women aged 55+  is already over one-third.  That, if I've understood the figures correctly, is of all women aged 55+, i.e. including centenarians and beyond. 2.  Nearly one third (32.8%) of F aged 65-69 will be in work by 2024.  So much for conventional ways of giving us the labour force figures, stopping at 65. 3.   Nearly one quarter  (22.4%) of…
Read More