Evening Standard comment: Ways to close the pay gap in London

The overwhelming tendency over time is towards narrowing the pay gap between the sexes
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The most obvious indicator of equality between the sexes is the closing of the pay gap between men and women. Indeed for younger, childless workers in their twenties, it is now pretty well non-existent. So it is troubling to learn that in London, of all places, the trend is being reversed, even though the divide is smaller here than elsewhere in Britain. Men are earning more than women in the same sectors — the gap in London grew from 6.8 per cent to 8.1 per cent in 2013 — and this trend has been magnified by City bonuses. The amounts involved are enough to tilt the average towards men, though there are other factors, including women taking up temporary and part-time work, presumably in order to care for their children.

By now we are rather wearily familiar with the reasons for men’s big bonuses in financial services. The most common is that men are more inclined to ask for them; women rely on firms rewarding their efforts unprompted, on the reasonable basis that their work should speak for itself. Another is that men are disproportionately represented in those areas of investment banking in which bonuses play a big part of remuneration, especially at senior levels. It is time for City firms to be more conscious of those practices that tilt rewards towards men. It is frankly silly to reward those who make the most noise with the highest pay. More enforced disclosure about pay by firms would jolt women into greater consciousness of this problem.

But City bonuses account for relatively few people, though in money terms they loom large. In other professions, the pattern of remuneration can work against women. For instance, lawyers are paid on the taxi-meter principle for time spent on a job. It would be in women’s interests to be paid for the job done instead, since they are often more efficient in their use of time than men because they have to juggle work and children.

But notwithstanding this problematic new trend, the overwhelming tendency over time is towards narrowing the pay gap between the sexes. And that’s very welcome.

Taxing mansions

Westminister council has gone on the offensive on the question of whether prime parts of residential London are now ghost towns, with properties owned, but not lived in, by the super-rich from abroad. It has commissioned an independent report which suggests that the number of properties worth more than £2 million in Westminster is relatively few — between eight and 17 per cent of all sales in the past four years — and that, in any event, most of them are occupied by their owners or sub-let to tenants.

This is interesting research but it is worth observing that the phenomenon of absentee foreign owners is not confined to Westminster but is evident in Kensington and Chelsea too. Some small areas are particularly affected. No doubt, as the report points out, the super-rich do contribute to London’s economic growth through lavish personal spending. But there is inequity about the way their properties are taxed. There is a striking disproportion in the council-tax banding between homes worth £300,000 and those worth more than £2 million. There’s no reason why the super-rich should pay less in London than New York.

Brave in the heat

We report today on the Londoners braving tropical temperatures to come to work on humid trains and hot buses. Nothing daunts the London worker. We salute you.

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