More evidence today that private sector bosses are paying themselves huge pay increases, whilst lecturing everyone else on the need for pay restraint.
A survey by the pay consultancy MM&K has looked at the latest annual reports of 657 companies. Bosses at the UK's top 100 listed companies have seen their pay rise 5% since 2008 to an average £3.1m. This is despite a 1% fall in earnings per share over the same time. CEO's pay has quadrupled over the past ten years.
In stark contrast an audit of last month's Budget has shown that women will shoulder nearly three-quarters of the burden of cuts and tax increases. An independent analysis carried out by the House of Commons library describes the Budget as the "worst for women since the creation of the welfare state", showing that more than 70 per cent of the revenue raised from direct tax and benefit changes will come from female taxpayers: of the nearly £8 billion net revenue to be raised by the financial year 2014-15, nearly £6bn will be from women and just over £2bn from men.
As Shadow Welfare Secretary Yvette Cooper, said today "Women are bearing nearly three-quarters of the Tory-Liberal plans, while men are bearing just a quarter. This is despite the fact that women's income and wealth is still considerably lower than men's. Even more significant, this doesn't include the impact of public spending cuts. As women make up more of the public sector workforce they will be more heavily hit by the public sector pay freeze and the projected 600,000 net public sector job losses."
Showing posts with label Equal pay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Equal pay. Show all posts
Monday, 5 July 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
Equal pay ruling
Great decision from the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Edinburgh on equal pay that will benefit thousands of low paid council workers.
Many manual workers such as cleaners, cooks and carers have already received compensation, but previous decisions of the EAT removed the right to compensation from thousands of administrators, clerical workers, learning assistants and library staff.
In the absence of a proper explanation for the pay differences between women and men, local authorities developed a technical argument that women and men only deserved equal pay if they were based in the same premises or had the same pay and conditions. This argument has now failed.
UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis has summed up our position:
“I am delighted that UNISON has opened up this route to justice for so many of our members. There is no place for employers to run or hide. UNISON’s equal pay campaign has defeated every contrived defence their lawyers have hidden behind. This charade has gone on too long. We want full compensation for all our members and that money must be paid now”
One of UNISON’s largest group of winners from the decision are classroom assistants, many of whom earn as little as £10,000 a year. We estimate that this Edinburgh decision will affect up 70,000 workers across the UK and while claim values will vary from person to person, some will exceed £30,000.
The UK government coalition agreement states;
"We will promote equal pay and take a range of measures to end discrimination in the workplace."
So we look forward to a government minister welcoming this decision.
Many manual workers such as cleaners, cooks and carers have already received compensation, but previous decisions of the EAT removed the right to compensation from thousands of administrators, clerical workers, learning assistants and library staff.
In the absence of a proper explanation for the pay differences between women and men, local authorities developed a technical argument that women and men only deserved equal pay if they were based in the same premises or had the same pay and conditions. This argument has now failed.
UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis has summed up our position:
“I am delighted that UNISON has opened up this route to justice for so many of our members. There is no place for employers to run or hide. UNISON’s equal pay campaign has defeated every contrived defence their lawyers have hidden behind. This charade has gone on too long. We want full compensation for all our members and that money must be paid now”
One of UNISON’s largest group of winners from the decision are classroom assistants, many of whom earn as little as £10,000 a year. We estimate that this Edinburgh decision will affect up 70,000 workers across the UK and while claim values will vary from person to person, some will exceed £30,000.
The UK government coalition agreement states;
"We will promote equal pay and take a range of measures to end discrimination in the workplace."
So we look forward to a government minister welcoming this decision.
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