What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More

What does ‘closing the GPG’ actually mean?

I've been trying to get a handle on what kind of progress has been made in closing the gender pay gap, and this has led me to ask myself what 'closing the gap' actually means.  It seems to me that the obvious 'zero gap = equality = fairness' may disguise something important. The Paula Principle is about the due recognition of women's competences, and I'm mostly interested in career trajectories over time, ie what kinds of progression women make.  But pay is obviously the most available indicator, and the ONS has recently published some important data on trends over time on the GPG.  (By the way, I want to say 'chapeau'…
Read More

Collective intelligence

One of the of soft skills commonly touted as of growing importance for organisational success is the capacity to work successfully with others.  'Teamwork' is the most familiar label for this, but I think this sounds a little simplistic.  Brenda, one of my interviewees in The Paula Principle, put it this way: Women are interested in getting stuff done;  they hate game-playing and internal politicking; the only build networks if they see them as a genuine vehicle for getting things done, and not for personal advancement.  Their language is about 'we', about looking for complementary skills in a team, recognising that they themselves cannot do it all. I've just been reading Superminds by Thomas Malone.…
Read More

Productivity and the PP

Last month, global leaders from governments, private sector companies, trade unions and civil society pledged to take concrete action towards closing the gender pay gap by 2030. The global commitments – to ensure women in every sector of the workforce are paid equally to men for doing work of equal value – were made at the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging event held during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. As part of the rationale for the initiative, Secretary-General of the OECD, Angel Gurría, said, “Gender pay gaps are not only unfair for those who suffer them, but they are also detrimental to our economies. If you do not have…
Read More

How a GPG deters potential recruits

The requirement on organisations with over 250 employees to report on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG) is starting to raise some interesting issues.  The latest amongst these is a survey carried out by BMG Research  for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of women agreed that if their organisation had a gender pay gap it would make it more likely they would select an employer without a gap. And more than half (58%) agreed it would make them less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.  More details in the chart below. It seems that those surveyed (men as well as women) were just…
Read More

Using our skills properly

How many times have you listened to or read dreary rhetoric about the need to up our skills level?  It is perfectly true that we don't give nearly enough respect, or money, to the less prestigious kinds of skills, notably those that are developed in the further rather than higher education sector.  But the important questions are around how well competences are actually used. This is, of course, the exact focus of the Paula Principle.  It's also the topic of a telling new report from the CIPD.  Here is its sweeping overall judgement (my stress):  The focus of skills policy over the last three decades has been almost exclusively on…
Read More

Working time and careers

At the TUC conference last week, the General Secretary Frances O'Grady offered a striking  comparison, between the C19 struggle for the 8-hour day and what she sees as the equivalent struggle in this century - for a 4-day working week.  Some commentators felt that her ambition was a little modest, as she put the target date for achievement only as the end of the century.  But I think O'Grady is absolutely right to bring the issue of working time centre stage.  (I'm anyway a fan of hers for showing such leadership on the People's Vote, but that's another issue.  Well, actually, only partly another issue as the EU provides the…
Read More

Payback!

It's 10 years since the Lehman Brothers crash, and all that that brought with it. On Friday   I'm going to see the Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre , to see how a quality dramatisation of events can shed new light on what happened.  I'm not sure how good it will be for my blood pressure, but I'm looking forward to it in any case. In this post I want to draw attention to another literary work - Payback, by Margaret Atwood.  This was published exactly at the time the world was crashing into financial chaos, and its subtitle is stunningly prescient: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  I found it a simply…
Read More

Japan doctoring figures: a taste of things to come?

Japan, along with Korea, is the outstanding example of a country where the Paula Principle is powerfully at work. Japanese women are very highly educated, with one of the highest rates of female university graduation in all OECD countries, nearing 50%; and yet the gender pay gap is also one of the highest, at around 30%. The main reasons for this are well known. Very long working hours and lack of affordable chidcare are two, but what really marks Japan out is a domestic culture that makes them solely responsible for child- and eldercare, and a corporate culture that remains very traditionally hierarchical and male. Women are discouraged from climbing…
Read More

Summer clearout

Accumulated cuttings from my desk on Paula-related issues: 1. 'City urged to close gender boys gap'. (FT) A Commons Treasury Committee argues that financial services companies should overhaul their remuneration policies to tackle the 'alpha male' culture. The GPG (Gender Pay Gap) requirements have certainly illustrated dramatically how the gap for bonuses is generally far bigger than for salaries. Whether the alpha male culture exists is another matter; personally I think it does, but Cordelia Fine, whose work I respect, advises us to be a bit cautious on this. 2. 'Oprah inspires women investors everywhere'. (FT) Very few of the people featured as financial investors in the papers are women.…
Read More

Working hours, productivity – and gender

A really interesting paper by Briony Harris from the World Economic Forum shows how reducing working hours can lead to increased productivity.  The first point that struck me is that the will-writing company that forms the initial case study employs 200 people - just how many wills do Kiwis need written?  The second, more significant, point is that the company simply chopped a day off the staff's working week without reducing pay or conditions and got the same results from them, with far higher levels of job satisfaction and staff commitment. The paper goes on to look at the relationship between working hours and productivity across a whole range of countries.  It notes…
Read More