At a glance: reward and benefits headlines this week
The headlines you might have missed between 12-18 February
Gender pay gap reporting details released
HR Magazine: The Office for National Statistics estimates that the pay gap currently stands at 19.2% in the UK. Read story
Government announces draft regulations on gender pay reporting
Employee Benefits: The government has published its draft regulations on its compulsory gender pay gap reporting for organisations with 250 employees or more. Read story
Govt must stump up cash to deliver pensions dashboard
Money Marketing: It seems the pensions industry have been extolling the virtues of the retirement ‘dashboard’ for decades now. Read story
Treasury eyes workplace advice as Budget looms
Money Marketing: The Treasury and FCA are considering boosting workplace advice tax incentives as policymakers look to improve support for savers in the wake of the pension freedoms, Money Marketing understands. Read story
Junior doctors' strikes will continue as minister plans to impose new contracts
CIPD: Row heats up over changes labeled ‘bad for the future of patient care’. Read story
Mishcon boss Gold sets sights on John Lewis-style ownership model
The Lawyer: Mishcon de Reya could move to a John Lewis-style ownership model that would see even the cleaning and reception staff own a stake in the business, according to plans mooted by managing partner Kevin Gold. Read story
M&S scheme in ample surplus as hedge pays off
Pensions Expert: The Marks and Spencer Pension Scheme has swung into surplus, thanks to a combination of outperformance of return-seeking assets and full hedging of interest rate risk, the company said last week. Read story
Businesses must improve productivity to balance NLW costs
HR Magazine: Many private sector businesses will have to improve productivity to offset NLW implementation costs. Read story
Scottish Power introduces retirement savings portal
Employee Benefits: Scottish Power has introduced an online portal to help its employees meet their retirement saving goals. Read story
17% cite auto-enrolment as a limiting factor on wage growth
Employee Benefits: Around a fifth (17%) of respondents cite pensions auto-enrolment as a reason why they were unable to raise basic pay by 2% or more in 2015, according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Read story
In-depth guide to healthcare in the workplace
Reward Guide: In this in-depth guide, we’ll outline ways to tackle the challenge of building a healthier workforce and therefore reducing sickness absence, without breaking the bank. Read story
Increasing employment costs puts brake on pay rises
CIPD: Pay expectations ‘at lowest levels for more than two years’. Read story
Evraz offers share plan to Russian employees
Employee Benefits: Steel, mining and vanadium business Evraz offers employee share plans to its 105,000 employees in Russia, Ukraine, the US, Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, South Africa and Kazakhstan. Read story
BA transfer value review puts spotlight on older members
Pensions Expert: Trustees of the British Airways Pension Scheme have rebalanced the scheme’s transfer value basis towards younger members, but anticipate the net impact of the shift will be cost neutral to its funding position. Read story
Report takes aim at ‘broken’ retirement advice fee models
Corporate Adviser: Adviser retirement fee models are “broken” and firms will increasingly need to switch to flat fee or ad hoc charging structures, a new report argues. Read story
Middle class savers face ‘retirement crisis’ from flat rate pension tax relief
Corporate Adviser: The mass market of middle income savers will face a “retirement crisis” if George Osborne decides to introduce a flat rate of pension tax relief, Hymans Robertson warns. Read story
The HR challenges of an ageing workforce
HR Magazine: People are living (and working) for longer, which has implications for employers' age strategies beyond older workers. Read story
Employee fails to prove lower bonus was ‘irrational and perverse’
CIPD: Contractual rules permitted employer to treat colleagues differently. Read story
IFS: pensions still the best way to save despite tax reforms
Professional Pensions: Pensions will still be the most effective way to save even if higher earners get less tax relief under the chancellor’s expected reforms, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS). Read story
ABI: pension ISAs could slash savings by a sixth in two decades
Professional Pensions: Introducing a pension ISA could dramatically lower savings and reduce the size of the economy over 20 years according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). Read story
Southwest Airlines to share $620 million with staff
Employee Benefits: Southwest Airlines is to give $620 million to its employees as part of its 2015 profit sharing plan. Read story
69% make employer pension contributions of 6% or less
Employee Benefits: More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents offer a contribution of 6% or less of earnings to their employees’ pension savings, according to research by Punter Southall Aspire. Read story
Just 3% help staff understand the changes to lifetime and annual allowance limits
Employee Benefits: Just 3% of employer respondents are helping their employees to understand the changes to lifetime and annual allowance limits that come into effect in April 2016, according to research by Close Brothers Asset Management. Read story
London City Airport introduces financial wellbeing app for staff
Employee Benefits: London City Airport has introduced a financial wellbeing app for its 500 employees. Read story
PPI warns of risks arising from LGPS pooling
Professional Pensions: Pooling the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) may not tackle the root causes of its deficit hole and members could be put at risk, according to the Pensions Policy Institute. Read story
FT staff accept deal on pensions
Professional Pensions: An overwhelming majority of Financial Times (FT) staff have accepted a deal on their pensions after seven months of tension which saw two threats of strike action. Read story
BNY Mellon: Create three LGPS infrastructure super pools
Professional Pensions: Pooling the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) into six funds is too many to have the scale to tap into a wide range of infrastructure opportunities says BNY Mellon. Read story
Gender pay gap reporting: the draft legislation examined
Personnel Today: Consultant editor Darren Newman examines the recently published draft gender pay gap reporting legislation. Read story
Employers risk breach of holiday rights with annual leave contract wording
Personnel Today: Some employees are set to suffer a breach of their annual leave rights as a result of the way that Easter bank holidays fall this year and how they fall next year. Read story
Osborne’s nightmare: Plummeting stocks leave non-advised pension investors exposed
Money Marketing: Months of plummeting stockmarkets are throwing Chancellor George Osborne’s pension experiment into doubt as thousands of customers acting without advice see the value of their savings decimated. Read story
NHS offers nurses cash to opt out of pensions
Money Marketing: The NHS is offering new nurses a higher salary if they opt out of the the health service’s automatic enrolment scheme. Read story
Vodafone supports global employees via tracker app
Employee Benefits: Mobile communication provider Vodafone uses International SOS to help protect staff based overseas and travelling on business. Read story
300 Scots hit by pension scam as advice gap persists
Pensions Expert: Scottish police are investigating a £10m pension liberation fraud that has targeted more than 300 people north of the border – a reminder for the industry of members’ vulnerability to evolving fraudulent operations. Read story
UK has one of the most frugal benefits systems in Europe
HR Magazine: Glassdoor's study ranks the UK third from the bottom on overall workplace and state benefits offering. Read story
Case study: Making an employee loan benefit work
HR Magazine: A clear, ethical approach and understanding of the pressures of financial worries have made Agilisys' loan offering a success. Read story
BGL Group relaunches bikes-for-work scheme
Employee Benefits: Financial services firm BGL Group has relaunched its bikes-for-work scheme. Read story
Total pay increases by 1.9%
Employee Benefits: Total pay, including bonuses, for employees in Great Britain increased by 1.9% between October-December 2014 and October-December 2015, according to research by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Read story
89% say wellness programmes boost happiness and wellbeing
Employee Benefits: Almost nine in 10 (89%) employee respondents believe that taking part in workplace wellness programmes improves their overall wellbeing and happiness, according to research by US health insurance provider Humana and the Economist Intelligence Unit. Read story
Government should ban LGPS from political divestment campaigns ban
Professional Pensions: The government is right to stop the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) from making politically motivated investment decisions according to PP research. Read story
DWP’s proposed AE changes ‘could create more work for LLPs’
Professional Pensions: Proposed changes to simplify the automatic enrolment (AE) process for employers may actually make it more complex for limited liability partnerships (LLPs), according to Sackers. Read story
BAE Systems to create Airbus section of main group scheme
Professional Pensions: BAE Systems, Airbus and the trustees are creating a separate Airbus section of the BAE Systems Pension Scheme in order to give a better estimate of the deficit allocation. Read story
Increases in employment and hours worked fail to translate into more pay, ONS reveals
CIPD: CIPD urges employers to focus on boosting productivity to enable wage rises. Read story