Top 10 stories from this week: Calls to end salary history questions to improve pay equality
A recent poll by the Fawcett Society found that 58% of women and more than half of men felt that being asked about their previous earnings meant they were offered a lower wage than they might have been otherwise.
As a result, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the Fawcett Society have joined together to launch the End Salary History campaign, which aims to eradicate gender, ethnicity, and disability pay gaps.
Simply committing to no longer asking these types of questions during recruitment processes can go a long way to mitigating pay gaps, by preventing underpayment and making pay negotiations fairer.
If employers are to truly make steps toward closing pay gaps, this is one simple way to stop historical inequalities and bias from following an individual and creating new pay gaps. For more insight in this area, download our DEI Benefits Research 2022.
For more reward and employee benefits news you might have missed this week, read our top 10 snippets below.
Campaigners launch call to end salary history and tackle pay inequality
People Management Two organisations are calling on businesses to end the practice of asking job applicants about their salary history as part of a campaign to tackle pay disparities.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and the Fawcett Society have teamed up to launch the End Salary History campaign, which aims to eradicate gender, ethnicity, and disability pay gaps. Read more
Employers see hybrid working productivity gains, but want staff in offices
Personnel Today More employers are reporting that home and hybrid working has improved productivity, but one in four still want their employees to be in the office all the time.
Research by the CIPD found that a potential mismatch is emerging between the working preferences of organisations and their employees. Twenty-five per cent of employers want their employees to be in the office or on site all the time, while 39% of employees would like to work from home all or most of the time. Read more
Disability pay gap widens compared to previous year, new data reveals
People Management The UK’s disability pay gap widened slightly to 13.8 per cent in 2021, new data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed, with disabled employees earning almost £2 per hour less than their non-disabled colleagues. Read more
Pay awards remain at highest level since 2008 but still lag behind inflation
Employee Benefits HR software firm XpertHR has analysed 263 pay settlement outcomes, and found that the median basic pay award in the three months to the end of March 2022 was worth 3%, the same as the previous two rolling quarters. Read more
Ill health and Covid force 400,000 out of labour market
Personnel Today The UK labour market has lost more than 1.1 million workers since the pandemic began, around 400,000 of whom have left due to long-term ill health and Covid-related factors, according to a think tank.
The Institute of Public Policy Research’s (IPPR) Health and prosperity report estimates that the UK labour market changes will result in an £8 billion fall in economic output in 2022 alone. Read more
Huge number of UK firms risk losing young staff
HR Grapevine Nearly three-quarters (72%) of UK businesses are not providing sufficient workforce experiences for young workers, as a result of poor workplace tech and employee experience strategies, according to new research from Applaud, the leading workforce experience layer. Read more
Call for extra bank holiday to be made permanent
BBC News Business leaders have urged the prime minister to make this year's extra bank holiday marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee permanent.
In an open letter, the CBI, UK Hospitality and a host of well-known brands said a "thank holiday" would honour the monarch and public service. Read more
HR services failing to make software mobile-friendly
HR Magazine HR departments are working to make their services mobile-friendly to keep up with employee demand.
Research from digital HR company Applaud found just 28% of companies had HR services that were mobile accessible, while 56% said that the mobile switch was part of their road map for the next 12 months. Read more
User trust in dashboards is step one, government says
Professional Pensions Savers need to trust pensions dashboards once they are introduced before any functionality upgrades to allow transactions to take place are added on, the government says.
The government's response to the 19th recommendation of the Work and Pensions Committees' (WPC) 24 design reforms laid down in January - published 27 April - was broadly in agreement with the WPC's sentiment that no consideration to upgrades be given until dashboards are ‘well-established'. Read more
Half of employees pushing to work from home to save on fuel costs, research reveals
People Management Nearly half of employees are trying to persuade their managers to allow them to work from home more often to mitigate rising fuel costs, research has revealed.
A poll of 2,922 workers by Randstad UK found 45 per cent were pushing for more remote work amid the cost of living crisis. Read more
