Financial news

• We froze the salaries of 20 executives – and it improved the lives of 500 employees | John Driscoll

  15-05-2019 21:36 via theguardian.com
  Executive pay is skyrocketing in the US. But I froze the salaries of my top team to benefit other workers – and it workedFive years ago, as a newly minted CEO of healthcare services company called CareCentrix, I had a complicated challenge. Related: Disney heir on CEO's $66m pay: 'No one on the freaking planet is worth that'Continue reading...
  
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• Inequality is the scourge of modern Britain. Is it finally about to be addressed? | Larry Elliott

  15-05-2019 19:37
  A damning new study on social injustice should mirror the postwar Beveridge report, and call for wholesale changes to the economyReports by the great and the good are ten a penny. All too often they are an excuse for kicking a tricky political issue deep into the long grass. Only rarely do they count for much. Maybe, just perhaps, the review into inequality launched by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and headed by the Nobel prize-winning economist Sir Angus Deaton will be one that makes a diffe
  
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• Trying it on: retailers fight back against repeat returners

  15-05-2019 18:50
  Stores are tightening their policies and even blacklisting shoppers who make a mockery of their returns policies. But will it change what we buy online?I have always been a serial returner: I order clothes, try them on and send them back. I am not alone. Now stores, which have attracted consumers with generous pledges of free delivery and returns, have begun to tighten their policies.According to research for Barclaycard, 20% of retailers surveyed have implemented stricter returns policies over
  
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• John Lewis axes link to final salary in staff pension scheme

  15-05-2019 18:11
  Money-saving move follows store closures and cutting staff bonuses to lowest since 1953John Lewis is ditching any link to final salary in its pension scheme in a bid to save £80m annually.After the pension move from April next year, all 83,900 workers at the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns the Waitrose supermarket chain, will have access to a defined contribution scheme under which the company will match staff payments of up to 8% of pay. Continue reading...
  
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• Cash, credits and crisis: life in the new European 'precariat'

  15-05-2019 18:00
  The number of working people failing to make ends meet is creating a new, insecure level of society One of the big criticisms of the EU is that it has shifted the focus over the past 30 years from social protection and solidarity towards growth and globalisation.The upshot has been rising inequality and mounting precariousness for a tier of people who find that work can be insecure, sporadic and so low paid that it doesn’t even cover the bills. Continue reading...
  
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• Ofcom forces telecoms firms to tell customers about better deals

  15-05-2019 14:27
  More than 20m people could save 20% on landline, mobile, broadband and TV packagesMore than 20 million customers could save one-fifth on the cost of their landline, broadband, TV and mobile packages after a ruling by Ofcom.The broadcasting and media regulator has introduced rules forcing broadband, TV and phone companies to tell customers when their contracts are coming to an end, and alert them to the best deals available from their current provider. Continue reading...
  
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• My bank put £19 on ‘hold’ for a £4.50 hospital parking charge

  15-05-2019 08:00
  It was taken from my account after checking in at the Royal Surrey County hospitalA car parking payment machine at the Royal Surrey County hospital in Guildford looks like something from a cross between Blake’s 7 and The Krypton Factor. Among its half-dozen wordy commands on the tiny screen is that you check in with your bank card and check out before you leave. People were getting extremely stressed and upset by its complexity.Continue reading...
  
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• Payday lenders face sharp criticism as complaints rise 130%

  15-05-2019 07:01
  Financial Ombudsman Service says conduct by some firms in sector has been unacceptable The finance industry’s adjudicator has criticised the “unacceptable” behaviour of some payday lenders after a 130% rise in complaints, which it said goes beyond the practices of recently collapsed industry leader Wonga.The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said the surge contributed to a 14% rise in complaints across the financial sector, which reached a five-year high of 388,392 over the 12
  
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• One in four northerners earn less than 'real living wage', says study

  15-05-2019 07:00
  Many in north of England on zero-hours contracts earn under £9 an hour, says IPPROne in four workers in the north of England are paid less than the “real living wage” of £9 an hour, a study has found.The rise of zero-hours contracts and a decade of stagnant wages has left 1.6 million northerners earning less than what they need to live, according to the thinktank IPPR North. Continue reading...
  
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