For more career advice, visit the Career Energy homepage

The gender pay gap is back in the news again. The Women and Work Commission, which was established to consider how to close the gap, said it had widened to 22.6% from 21.9% in 2007. The Commission says that women are still being pushed into traditionally lower paid jobs and that one of the main reasons for this is stereotyping- that we have an ingrained perception of the role of women in the work place which leads them into jobs that pay less.

(more…)

There have been indications recently that the economic contraction could lead to reversals in some of the social progress in the employment sector over the last twenty or thirty years. It is not surprising. When jobs are short and money tight, the natural impulse is for the dominant social group to close ranks, to the exclusion of those who are more vulnerable. But if left unchecked these murmurings- for that is all they are at the moment- could herald a worrying change. Which may be one of the reasons for the government seeking to bring in a new law to tackle inequality in the workplace.

(more…)