Web and Video Links

Fast and loose with underpayment: Zero Hours Contracts and wage theft

In the UK the issue of zero hours contracts has been much debated recently. Find here two contrasting views on the subject, one from the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union in 2014 highlighting some of the drawbacks for employees on zero hours contracts. The other is a voice piece for the CIPD from 2018 defending their use.

Internationally, Wage Theft, the practice of paying workers less than they are entitled to, is a more common concern as the following news stories form Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald from the USA via US News and from the Resolution Foundation and the BBC in the UK highlight.

Executive Pay

The first clip from the Financial Times speaks clearly to the concerns around executive pay, its incentive value and its relationship to firm performance. More recently, the High pay Centre has identified that while CEOs still earn 117 times the median pay of their employees, Median CEO pay has fallen by 13%. In Australia a recent royal commission has raised major concerns around not so much on the absolute level of pay as on the bonuses earned by the leaders of Australia’s banks. This is eerily similar to conversations around the time of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/8. Finally, the story from the Fox News Network in the US offers a rather different interpretation on the role and significance of executive pay.

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation

This TED Talk discusses research and practical application of the assumptions about motivation and reward. It highlights the disconnect between research and practice in reward management and the roles of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the 21st century.