Mara Thorne's Blog – October 2012 Archive (2)

When I started secondary school, I remember coming across mathematics problems that went something like this: “The total wage bill at the Widgets Factory is £10,000 per week. Men are paid £2.00 per hour, and women are paid £1.50 per hour, for working a 40 hour week. If there are 100 men employed, how many women are employed at the factory?”As it was an all-girls’ school, we were naturally incensed that men and women should be paid at different rates…

This week saw the introduction of the long-awaited “Automatic Enrolment” regime for workplace pensions. Conceived by the last Labour Government, it is now being implemented by the Coalition, with the intention of encouraging the large number of employees without access to a workplace pension scheme to get into the habit of saving for their retirement.

Perhaps surprisingly, a recent survey by Scottish Widows found that more than half of the UK…