THE HUB RETAIL RECRUITMENT’S WEEKLY NEWS SNIPPETS
- Date: 10 August 2016
- Posted By: admin
A week goes by so quickly – so it’s already that time again: The Hub Retail Recruitment’s Weekly News Snippets. This week, our pick of the stories are: Consumer spending holds up; Objections to the national living wage continue; FTSE 100 CEO’s salaries keep climbing; Changing banks gets easier; and 50% of working women sexually harassed.
Consumer spending holds up: High Street sales were up by 1.9% in the last month. Experts put the rise down to the warmer weather, which also helped food and drink sales. Our spending on restaurants, pubs, and cinemas was also part of the increase. However, according to the research in this article, only half of us are confident of being able to continue to spend on non-essential items because of uncertainty post-brexit. For the time being, it’s good news that spending is holding up. And it’s also good news that the FTSE is at it’s highest for 14 months. Despite the nose-dive after the brexit vote, it’s now standing at 10% higher than in did in June 2015. Both good signs, and let’s hope further green shoots appear before too long.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37016123
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37019932
Objections to the national living wage (NLW) continue: The debate about whether the NLW should rise to £9 per hour by 2020 continues. Theresa May has said she will stand behind the policy, but 16 trade associations have written to the Business Secretary, Greg Clarke, expressing their concerns of going ahead with such a policy whilst the economic outlook is uncertain. Experts are at odds about whether a higher NLW will improve productivity or not. As we know from recent Weekly Snippets, the retail sector is having its struggles with paying the new National Minimum Wage, with some retailers doing so by reducing other benefits to their workforces. No doubt this issue will continue for some time to come.
http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2016/08/businesses-fight-national-living-wage-targets
FTSE 100 CEO’s salaries keep climbing: And climbing. To an eye-watering average of £5.5 million! There continues to be disquiet building about the huge difference between top pay and ordinary staff. Theresa May has said she wants more transparency of pay by businesses having to publish the ratio of the CEO with the average employee’s pay. And also that ordinary staff should have a say on executive pay. We think both of these initiatives are great – but await further details on how an ‘ordinary’ employee would be involved in a meaningful way.
Changing banks gets easier: If you’ve ever tried to change energy supplier and found it so difficult you’d never bother again, then that probably applies even more to changing your bank. But now the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced a new app to make it easier for us to shop around for better deals, and for small and new banks to flourish. Apparently, only 3% of us change our banks a year, but we could save £92 per year by doing so. However, commentators say the CMA hasn’t gone far enough – and that’s probably true so let’s hope this is a good start.
http://news.sky.com/story/open-banking-app-part-of-industry-shake-up-10528709
50% of working women sexually harassed: A shocking report from the TUC says that half of women in the workplace are/have been sexually harassed – and the highest proportion are young women. 1:5 women in the survey had been harassed by their bosses. The harassment ranged from inappropriate jokes, questions about love lives, to touching and propositioning. This is a shocking report – we think we live in an enlightened time and this shows that we are not. Most of the abuse goes unreported – 79% of women surveyed said they didn’t report it out of fear. It all comes down to the culture of the company. And whether the employer has a genuine desire to ensure the safety of the women in their workplace. Let’s hope this is a wakeup call.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37025554
Well, that’s it for another week. Do look out for The Hub Retail Recruitment’s Weekly News Snippets next week – Wednesday 16 August.