"Shocking" gender pay gap found in UK finance

Women in some of Britain's leading financial companies receive around 80 percent less in bonus and performance-linked pay than their male colleagues, the country's equality watchdog said on Monday.
A survey of 50 finance firms found that women earned an average of 2,875 pounds ($4,712) a year in performance pay compared to 14,550 pounds for men, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said.
There was also a 39 percent gap between women and men in annual basic pay, rising to 47 percent when bonuses and other additional payments were added.
"The finance sector has one of the highest overall gender pay gaps in the UK economy," the commission said.
It said women working full-time in the finance firms surveyed earned 55 percent less annual gross salary than men, compared to a pay gap of 28 percent for the economy generally.
"The financial sector has the potential to play a central role in Britain's recovery. But it has to address this shocking disparity of rewards," said EHRC Chairman Trevor Phillips.
The sector's age profile could be a factor in holding back women, the commission said.
"An unusually high proportion of workers in the sector fall into the 25-39 age group -- the age at which women tend to have childcare responsibilities."
The British Bankers' Association said big payouts were made to a relatively small number of people and that part of the gender pay gap in finance was due to lifestyle choices made by women.
"In general, women tend to be attracted to areas such as retail banking, fund management, insurance and other functions where people skills are at a premium -- these, traditionally, do not attract the higher bonuses," the BBA said.
"Women also often make different choices when it comes to balancing work and home life. The industry employs proportionately quite young people and this too can have an impact on salaries as it clashes with those years when more women than men take time out to look after children."

cellphone

Cellphone feels like a part of your body? A global survey has found that most people can't live without their mobiles, never leave home without them and, if given a choice, would rather lose their wallet.
Calling mobile phones the "remote control" for life, market research firm Synovate's poll said cell phones are so ubiquitous that by last year more humans owned one than did not.
Three-quarters of the more than 8,000 respondents polled online in 11 countries said they take their phone with them everywhere, with Russians and Singaporeans the most attached.
More than a third also said they couldn't live without their phone, topped by Taiwanese and again Singaporeans, while one in four would find it harder to replace the mobile than their purse.
Some two-thirds of respondents go to bed with their phones nearby and can't switch them off, even though they want to, because they're afraid they'll miss something.
"Mobiles give us safety, security and instant access to information. They are the number one tool of communication for us, sometimes even surpassing face-to-face communication. They are our connections to our lives," Jenny Chang, Synovate's managing director in Taiwan, said in a statement.
Mobiles have also changed the nature of relationships, with the survey finding nearly half of all respondents use text messages to flirt, a fifth set up first-dates via text and almost the same number use the same method to end a love affair.
Apart from the obvious calling and texting, the top three features people use regularly on their mobile phones globally are the alarm clock, the camera and the games.
As for email and Internet access, 17 percent of respondents said they checked their inboxes or surfed the Web off their phones, lead by those in the United States and Britain.
One in 10 respondents log onto social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace regularly via mobile, again led by Britain and the United States.
"As the mobile becomes more and more an all-in-one device, many other businesses are facing challenging times. The opportunities for mobile manufacturers and networks however are enormous," said Synovate's global head of media, Steve Garton.
Not everyone is tech savvy, however: 37 percent of respondents said they don't know how to use all the functions on their phone.

Romantic

No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is ,won't make you cry.

Don't try to hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.

Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.

Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.

Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.

I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am withyou.

The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.