Labour market
Total financial reward higher in the public than private sector? It is scandalous but not for the obvious reasons…
- Median weekly pay for full-time employees in the public sector was around 15 per cent higher in 2009 than in the private sector. Median total financial reward, which also captures employer pension contributions, was nearly 30 per cent higher.
- The wider gap for total financial reward does not necessarily reflect higher public sector pension contributions but is due to fact that
The pension challenge for small businesses and their employees: too big to ignore
- It is difficult to engage employers of small businesses in the realm of pensions where additional but optional administration is necessary; small business is difficult enough without having to be paternal.
- Until the pensions industry finds a way to tap into this market or government makes it more desirable for SMEs to want to set up pensions for their workers, a large
A default retirement ages seems out of date in an ageing society
- Government’s announcement to abolish default retirement age was welcomed by organisations representing workers but not by those representing businesses.
- What feels like the removal of discrimination to some is just another regulation for others. However, there is little choice.
- As the population and workforce age, most people now accept that we will have to
Who will pay? Inter-generational transfers and public sector pensions
This paper analyses the different channels through which particular generations within one society can end up subsidising other generations through the functioning of the welfare state. The welfare state, which is organised and funded by “society” through taxation, plays an important part in almost all countries, often providing services such as education and health care or transfers such
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Raising the state pension age sounds good but is not without its challenges
Only two days after presenting its austerity budget which outlined the new Government’s intended fiscal consolidation path over the course of this Parliament, the new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Ian Duncan Smith, announced that his Government would increase the State Pension Age (SPA) for males to 66 years by 2016. This is eight years earlier than planned by the previous
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