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Over egging it perhaps but he’s right

He added: “I’ve had lots of women reporting to me or coming in to talk to me about their careers – either for general guidance or employees of companies where I’ve been working. I have never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise.

“There isn’t a list long enough for all the men who’ve asked. Lots of men have trooped into my office saying they are under-paid but no woman has ever done that.”

He said that he believes that many chief executives would tell the same story: “It is far more common for men to ask for more money than it is for women.”

All of the academic research into this does show that women ask less often and less aggressively when they do.

Female BBC stars complaining that they are paid less than their male colleagues “let it happen” by failing to ask for a pay rise, the Government’s equality tsar has suggested.

Sir Philip Hampton, who co-chairs a Government-commissioned review into the treatment of women in the UK’s biggest companies, said he had “never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise”.

Nice to see they appointed someone who knows the subject isn’t it?

MPs said the comments by Sir Philip, chairman of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, were “astonishingly ill-judged” and “heap insult on injustice”.

Distressing how many of our rulers don’t like science, isn’t it?

14 thoughts on “Over egging it perhaps but he’s right”

  1. BBC stars do not ask for pay rises. Their agents do that for them. Perhaps the outraged snowflakes should speak to the agents?

  2. Just because that’s what happens doesn’t mean that it’s hard wired. The question we should be asking is why it happens that way.

  3. Lots of men have trooped into my office saying they are under-paid but no woman has ever done that

    This might be indicative of what men and women are doing with the money respectively. It suggests men are under more financial pressure, perhaps because they must provide for a family.

  4. In fact, I’ll go one step further: I bet half these women don’t ask for a pay-rise because they know they’re on a cushy number and probably can’t believe their luck in the first place.

  5. Plus the willingness to take risks. That the boss says no, you’re a waste of space, go elsewhere if you want more money.

  6. There are many women who aggressively ask their husbands to ask their bosses for pay rises.
    It’s as if the ways in which we get what we want are related to your sex.

  7. Bloke in North Dorset

    One comment I say said that Sir Philip was “out of touch”. I think he is exactly in touch and that knows that reality isn’t optional.

  8. There is also evidence that women who do ask for pay raises are much less likely to get them and much more likely to face negative consequences for asking.

    The assumption that the risk calculation is wrong is exactly that, an assumption.

  9. “There is also evidence that women who do ask for pay raises are much less likely to get them and much more likely to face negative consequences for asking.”

    Do you have a link for that?

  10. “I bet half these women don’t ask for a pay-rise because they know they’re on a cushy number and probably can’t believe their luck in the first place.”

    Basically, that’s right. Bright women strive and excel in their 20s; then tend to rest on their laurels (aka TimN’s cushy number) as they have a couple of children, returning part-time for a few years. And then they moan they aren’t paid as much as men, because, er, equality.

  11. ‘Government review into the treatment of women in the UK’s biggest companies’

    The government will get around to protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness later, when it better suits their mood.

  12. I don’t understand what world they live in. If you want more pay, you have to more/more valuable work. “I’ve installed two cookers/treated two kiddies/picked two hundred tonnes of potatoes, I want to be paid as though I’ve done three” Yer wot?

  13. The only way to solve the pay gap at the BBC is for everyone, irrespective of grade or whether employed directly or indirectly to be paid the current UK average wage.
    No more and no less, equal pay for everyone.

  14. Yes, Bob. I advocate at least cutting men’s pay down to that of wimmin. See how many friends that makes for the wimmin.

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