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Sexism in City - and the truth about salaries
Evening Standard 7 Aug 2008
The latest example of sexism in the City? A new survey says high-flying women earn an average of 37% less than their male counterparts. That's the assessment of wealth management firm The Route, which estimates top City women are pocketing around £281,000 while men are paid an average of £445,000. Female lawyers and management consultants face the biggest discrepancies in salaries. Male lawyers earn on average £573,000, more than double the income of women lawyers who are paid £255,000. But while sexism undoubtedly persists, it may be too much to claim this is just discrimination. After all, many women take time off in their 30s to have children just as their careers start to peak - say, when they are on the verge of being made partner in a law firm.
The Route also found that women's earnings did outperform men's in some areas - self-employed City women earn £130,000 compared with men on £124,000.
* City Spy's old friend Frank Timis is spending an inordinate amount of time in Kiev. Hmmm. The Ukraine just happens to be the hotspot for the future of Regal Petroleum, the oil and gas company. Yes, that's right, the company Timis founded and used to head until he was defenestrated by other major investors who were only happy for him to remain as the major shareholder so long as he was nowhere near running the show...
Unwrap over Toffees, Sir Phil
Pressure is growing on Sir Philip Green to come clean over his involvement with Everton Football Club. City Spy long ago outed Bhs boss Green as a secret backer of the Toffees but only recently did he finally admit to The Times: "Everyone knows I'm a friend of [club chairman] Bill Kenwright and I helped him get Everton." The Times has now repeated City Spy's story last week that Everton chief executive Keith Wyness quit the club because of the growing influence of Green at Goodison Park. All that remains to be divulged now is just what financial interest Green or his vehicles has or had in the acquisition of a 23% stake in the club two years ago, purportedly by Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl. C'mon, PG, you can do it, it's not that embarrassing.
* What is fascinating is the trip that Wyness reportedly made to the Balearics to confront Green on his yacht. The Topshop billionaire has been cruising off Mallorca and after leaving Everton, Wyness headed for the island and a showdown with Green - apparently in an attempt to agree a severance package. How did Green, who was entertaining Kate Moss and Sylvester Stallone, among others, take to having an uninvited guest? Did Sly team up with Sean, Green's regular bodyguard, to have the bolshy Toffees boss ejected?
* August is high-season for the free-spending Arabs in London. One Saudi family has hit the heights of exuberant excess by shipping over eight cars from Jeddah, including a Ferrari, a Lambo and Bugatti and the new 240 mph Koenigsegg CC Swedish supercar, to service their various Belgravia homes and country houses during their stay. At a cost of £35,000 for six weeks' insurance...
Hutton is tied up in red tape
So John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to cut red tape and has announced a new initiative to that effect. This is that a Whitehall department will introduce new regulations provided it removes ones that cost business an equivalent amount. That's not quite the same as cutting - in fact it's rather different. Business is still straddled with a mountain of bureaucracy. Oh, and climate change, the one area that is likely to generate plenty of mindless form-filling and rule-complying as the years progress, is to be excluded. Thank you, John.
* An email lands from the British Airways control tower in relation to City Spy's item about the scrapping of the Manchester-Heathrow mid-morning shuttle, a favourite of North-Westerners wanting to make connections at Heathrow, something the airline top brass argues is one of the reasons why the airport should be allowed to expand further. It's back on - well, some of the time, anyway. "Good to see that City Spy recognises British Airways' powerful argument about the importance of Heathrow's role in connecting the UK regions with a global network," says the email. "Just to clarify that the mid-morning flight from Manchester will operate as normal during 98% of the winter season and is only being cancelled on a few occasions." Tough, of course, if you want to fly on the "few occasions" it will be not be operating.
O brother, where art thou? Here's Bin Laden
What does the brother of the boss of Al Noor Holdings, the Arab property giant, make of its plan to build a bridge across the Red Sea, linking Africa and Asia and create a bumper payday for companies in the US and UK?
Al Noor intends to construct two cities on either side of the sea, one in Djibouti in East Africa and the other in Yemen and link them with what will be the world's largest suspension bridge at 28 kilometres. The mammoth, £150 billion project will be masterminded by US firm TSG Technical Services and talks are under way with leading US and UK architects. UK engineering and construction consultancies EC Harris and Keller are already providing their services. Al Noor is run by Sheikh Tarek Bin Laden.
Sadly, his brother Osama could not be reached for comment.
* Gulp. Sixty-two of property group Liberty International's shopping centre tenancies were in administration at 30 June...
* BBC business reporter Adam Shaw had better get used to the early-morning starts. The Working Lunch presenter has enjoyed a spell as stand-in presenter on Radio 4's Today Programme while regular fixture Greg Wood was working in New York. Now Shaw is making a permanent move - to host business news for BBC1's breakfast TV news and the News 24 TV channel. But if he knows so much about business, why isn't he a multi-millionaire? "I'm quite cautious and my investments are there for long-term growth." He recalls one loss-making company, in which he chose not to invest, where the shares were inexplicably rising. Eventually they collapsed. "But who was clever?" he wonders. "Me for getting it right or the City types, who didn't care that the rise was unfounded and who sold just before the share price fell? They're the ones with the island, while I'm stuck in [BBC HQ in] White City."
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