In hip pocket money news.
Women held back on promotions
Get more “confidence” and “experience” are two of the common pieces of workplace advice that women are being told by their managers if they ask for a pay rise or promotion.
Fairfax Media reports that a study by Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women shows almost 60 per cent of men were promoted twice or more in the past five years compared with only 41 per cent of females.
The study titled, Advancing Women in Australia: Eliminating bias in feedback and promotions, surveyed 4500 people in business, government and not-for-profit sectors, and found that eliminating bias in feedback and promotions was the root cause of the disparity in promotion rates.
The report follows a US study published in Financy this week, which also found that workplace discrimination often held mothers back and that it was coming from both male and female bosses.
Meanwhile, Financy’s latest news poll is asking you: when was the last time you asked for a pay rise?
Let us know!
Savers saving less
In a move that suggests the banks see interest rates being cut this year, more banks have reduced the interest paid on their savings accounts.
National Australia Bank has cut the interest rate for its NAB’s Reward Saver account from 2.7 per cent to 2.55 per cent, while Citi’s Online Saver has been reduced from 3 per cent to 2.85 per cent. AMP’s Notice Account has been cut from 2.2 per cent to 2.15 per cent, according to news.com.au.
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Westpac each cut rates on their online savings accounts in December.
NAB and CommBank also cut savings rates in November.
The official cash rate stands at 1.5 per cent and some economists believe rates are either on hold or will be cut this year to further stimulate economic growth.
Financy more on cuts to saver accounts?
CBA insurance scandal gets uglier
A Deloitte investigation into Commonwealth Bank’s scandal-plagued life insurance arm has been called into question amid reports that it left out important information from claimants.
Deloitte’s report said it did not identify “any systemic issues relating to historically declined claims” and “any evidence … the claims handling processes are designed in a way that could systemically deliver poor customer outcomes”.
CBA commissioned the report into CommInsure after a joint Fairfax Media and Four Corner‘s investigation exposed the tampering of medical files and the denial of claims based on outdated definitions.
Fairfax Media reports that while Deloitte manually reviewed more than 200,000 email documents and interviewed 80 people, it did not interview claimants and instead relied on existing paperwork.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is investigating CommInsure.
