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EU Treaty Changes - Senior Fellow Tim Ambler's letter in the Daily Telegraph

Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute Tim Ambler published a letter with the Daily Telegraph on bilateral treaties within the EU:

SIR – It takes at least four years to set up an intergovernmental meeting to make EU treaty changes, by which time the referendum will be long gone.

The only way agreements can be made binding is through bilateral treaties between EU members undertaking to include the agreements in the next round of treaty changes. Such bilateral agreements are allowed by EU protocols but have not yet been used for this purpose.

In addition to being both precise and binding, Brussels would not be able to frustrate the process.

Tim Ambler Senior Fellow, Adam Smith Institute London SW1

Read the letter online here.

Dr Madsen Pirie's comments on the greenbelt feature in the IBTimes

Dr Madsen Pirie's comments on the greenbelt feature in the International Business Times UK:

"The first step in re-evaluation might be to classify greenbelt land into the different types that comprise it," wrote Dr Madsen Pirie of the Adam Smith Institute think tank back in March.

"There is genuinely green land, the fields and woods that everyone likes. There is damaged or brownfield land, partly made up of abandoned buildings, gravel pits and the like. And there is farmland, much of which is not environmentally friendly."

An earlier report by the Adam Smith Institute said that one million homes could be built within walking distance from a station on just 3.7% of the green belt land surrounding the city.

Read the full article here.

Kate Andrews's comments on the gender pay gap feature in The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Caller

Head of Communications Kate Andrews’s comments on the Prime Minister’s pay gap pledge have featured in The Daily Telegraph and The Daily Caller. From The Daily Telegraph:

Of course, there are many variables at play in determining any individual’s pay. Kate Andrews from The Adam Smith Institute has called the pay gap “a myth”, adding: “Education, previous experiences, negotiating tactics and unique abilities all contribute to one’s salary, none of which can be known by comparing John and Jane’s annual take-home pay on a spreadsheet.”

Read the full article here.

From The Daily Caller:

Since Hillary’s speech Monday, analysts have warned of the potential unintended consequences of using policy tools to hike the female labor participation rate. “Once again, we find examples of government overreach into wages and labor markets backfiring on the very people it is trying to protect,” Adam Smith Institute Research Associate Kate Andrews told TheDCNF.

“The gender pay gap has been debunked for the myth that it is; women are not earning less than their male counterparts on the whole because of employer discrimination, but rather because many women make different lifestyle choices that do not value a high salary above all else,” she added.

Read the full article here. 

Why the gender pay gap is a myth - Kate Andrews writes for Spectator Coffee House

Head of Communications explains why the gender pay gap is based more on political agenda than truth on the Spectator's Coffee House blog.

Today the Prime Minister has set out to ‘end the gender pay gap in a generation’. It would be an ambitious goal, if a wage gap actually existed. According to the latest ONS figures, women between the ages of 22 – 29 earn 1.1 per cent more on average than their male counterparts and women between the ages of 30-39 are also earning more.

And it doesn’t stop there. There’s evidence that when men and women follow the same career path in the UK, women tend to out-earn and out-perform men. There is growing evidence that if you control for similar backgrounds, women actually tend to get more aggressively promoted than men by their employers.

This alleged gap that the Prime Minister refers to is actually indicative of personal lifestyle decisions, not employer discrimination. While women who choose to stay on rigorous career paths usually find themselves rewarded, many women choose to take more flexible jobs and/or years out of work to focus on different – but equally important – parts of life, like raising a family. Naturally a drastic change in working hours, work-place responsibilities and shift of focus will have an impact on one’s salary.

Read the full article here.

Will disclosed gender pay data help women in the workplace? Kate Andrews argues NO in City AM

Head of Communications Kate Andrews argued that Cameron's plan to make large businesses disclose their gender pay gaps will not help women in the workplace in the City AM debate forum:

Kate Andrews, head of communications at the Adam Smith Institute, says No

Gender pay gap stats are already manipulated to suggest that women are the targets of sexist employers throughout the UK. But the facts simply don’t support this. Women aged 22-39 working more than 30 hours a week are paid more hourly than their male counterparts.

There’s also evidence that women who stay on their career path are more likely to be promoted by their employers. Furthermore, if women truly earned less for “being women”, employers would surely drop their male staff to increase their profits. The truth behind the pay gap is not gender discrimination, but rather different choices down the line that lead some women to value other things in life more than their salary.

If large businesses are forced to publish their alleged pay gaps, we will be left with more meaningless, inaccurate numbers that will only perpetuate the myth. The numerous and complex factors that go into determining salary cannot simply be explained by a number on a spreadsheet.

Read the full debate here.

Kate Andrews's comments on Cameron's pay gap pledge feature in the Guardian and Daily Mail

Head of Communications Kate Andrews's comments on the Prime Minister's pay gap pledge have featured in the Guardian and Daily Mail. From the Guardian (page 1):

Kate Andrews, its head of communications, said: “According to the ONS, women between the ages of 22–39 working more than 30 hours a week earn, on average, more than their male counterparts.

“Forcing businesses with more than 250 employees to publish their ‘pay gaps’ will only promote more myths and confusion. There is no such thing as an ‘average salary’; education, previous experiences, negotiating tactics, and unique abilities all contribute to one’s salary, none of which can be known by comparing John and Jane’s annual take-home pay on a spreadsheet.

“Furthermore, men and women often choose to make different career decisions – usually based on flexibility and rigour – so they can embrace other, equally meaningful parts of their life; this, naturally, can be reflected in their pay.”

Read the full article here.

From The Daily Mail (page 4):

Kate Andrews, from the Adam Smith Institute, said: 'There is no such thing as an "average salary". Education, previous experiences, negotiating tactics and unique abilities all contribute to one's salary, none of which can be known by comparing John and Jane's annual take-home pay on a spreadsheet."

Also, from the Mail Online:

Kate Andrews at the free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute said: ‘Men and women often choose to make different career decisions, so they can embrace other, equally meaningful parts of their life. This, naturally, can be reflected in their pay.’

Read the full article here.