Adam Victor Brandizzi

‘The lesson of all this is that the economy is complicated and textbook economic logic alone will get us only so far’

In 1970, Labour’s employment secretary Barbara Castle shepherded the Equal Pay Act through parliament, with the promise that women would be paid as much as men when doing equivalent jobs. The political spark for the Act came from a famous strike by women at Ford’s Dagenham plant, and the moral case is self-evident.

The economics, however, looked worrisome. The Financial Times wrote a series of editorials praising “the principle” of equality but nervous about the practicalities. In September 1969, for example, an FT editorial observed that “if the principle of equal pay were enforced too rigorously, employers might often prefer to employ men”; and the day after the Act came into force on December 29 1975, the paper noted a new era “which many women may come to regret”.

The economic logic for these concerns is straightforward. Whether because of prejudice or some real difference in productivity, employers were willing to pay more for men than for women. That inevitably meant that if a new law artificially raised women’s salaries, women would struggle to find work at those higher salaries.

The law certainly did raise women’s salaries. Looking at the simple headline measure of hourly wages, women’s pay has gradually risen over the decades as a percentage of men’s, although it remains lower. Typically, this process of catch-up has been gradual but, between 1970 and 1975, the years when the Equal Pay Act was being introduced, the gap narrowed sharply.

Did this legal push to women’s pay cause joblessness, as some feared? No. Women have steadily made up a larger and larger proportion of working people in the UK, and the Equal Pay Act seems to have no impact on that trend whatsoever. If any effect can be discerned, it is that the proportion of women in the workforce increased slightly faster as the Act was being introduced; perhaps they were attracted by the higher salaries?

The lesson of all this is that the economy is complicated and textbook economic logic alone will get us only so far. The economist Alan Manning recently gave a public lecture at the London School of Economics, where he drew parallels between the Equal Pay Act and the minimum wage, pointing out that in both cases theoretical concerns were later dispelled by events.

The UK minimum wage took effect 16 years ago this week, on April 1 1999. As with the Equal Pay Act, economically literate commentators feared trouble, and for much the same reason: the minimum wage would destroy jobs and harm those it was intended to help. We would face the tragic situation of employers who would only wish to hire at a low wage, workers who would rather have poorly paid work than no work at all, and the government outlawing the whole affair.

And yet, the minimum wage does not seem to have destroyed many jobs — or at least, not in a way that can be discerned by slicing up the aggregate data. (One exception: there is some evidence that in care homes, where large numbers of people are paid the minimum wage, employment has been dented.)

The general trend seems a puzzling suspension of the law of supply and demand. One explanation of the puzzle is that higher wages may attract more committed workers, with higher morale, better attendance and lower turnover. On this view, the minimum wage pushed employers into doing something they might have been wise to do anyway. To the extent that it imposed net costs on employers, they were small enough to make little difference to their appetite for hiring.

An alternative response is that the data are noisy and don’t tell us much, so we should stick to basic economic reasoning. But do we give the data a fair hearing?

A fascinating survey reported in the most recent World Development Report showed World Bank staff some numbers and asked for an interpretation. In some cases, the staff were told that the data referred to the effectiveness of a skin cream; in other cases, they were told that the data were about whether minimum wages reduced poverty.

The same numbers should lead to the same conclusions but the World Bank staff had much more trouble drawing the statistically correct inference when they had been told the data were about minimum wages. It can be hard to set aside our preconceptions.

The principle of the minimum wage, like the principle of equal pay for women, is no longer widely questioned. But the appropriate level of the minimum wage needs to be the subject of continued research. In the UK, the minimum wage is set with advice from the Low Pay Commission, and it has risen faster than both prices and average wages. A recently announced rise, due in October, is well above the rate of inflation. There must be a level that would be counterproductively high; the question is what that level is.

And we should remember that ideological biases affect both sides of the political divide. In response to Alan Manning’s lecture, Nicola Smith of the Trades Union Congress looked forward to more ambition from the Low Pay Commission in raising the minimum wage “in advance of the evidence”, or using “the evidence more creatively”. I think British politics already has more than enough creativity with the evidence.

Written for and first published at ft.com.

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I will henceforth refer to my hand as a "Galaxy Shield"

Australian photographer Ray Collins first picked up a camera in 2007 and used it to photograph his friends surfing around his home after long shifts working in a nearby coal mine. His attention quickly shifted from his friends to patterns and forms he noticed in the waves. Collins, who is colorblind, was also drawn to the interplay of light and water, perhaps more attune to contrast than the nuance of color. He poetically refers to this switch from coal miner to fine art photographer as a balance between his “black life and blue life.”

The accolades, awards, and sponsorships have been heaped on Collins leading to the publication of his first book, Found at Sea, he also has a wide variety of prints on his website, and you can follow his photography day-to-day on Instagram. (via Laughing Squid)

alpha-beta-gamer:

Pacapong is a glorious mash-up of Pacman, Pong and Space Invaders with multiple maps and cool retro music, It’s a wonderful blast of retro arcade fun.  It even features cameos from a certain retro primate. PacaDonkeyPong anyone?

Play Pacapong, Free (Win, Mac & Linux)

nevver:

Isabel Muñoz

With the announcement of our 100th Flickr Commons institution yesterday, we wanted to take a closer look at some of the stories behind iconic photos from the collection. This selection represents a few of our favorite stories, but we highly encourage you to explore the Commons further on your own.

The U.S. National Archives, Richard M. Nixon and Elvis Presley at the White House, December 1970. Elvis Presley was famously obsessed with police badges, owning a huge collection of them. A notable hole in his collection was a badge from the then Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (a predecessor of the DEA); he reportedly believed that “..with the federal narcotics badge, he could legally enter any country both wearing guns and carrying any drugs he wished.” On an overnight flight in an impromptu visit to Washington D.C., Elvis wrote a note to President Nixon requesting a meeting so he could get a “narc badge.” The visit was arranged the same day. A remarkable description of the meeting can be found here.

George Eastman House, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936. This stunning portrait of the human face of the Great Depression in 1930’s America is popularly known as Migrant Mother. Commissioned by the Resettlement Administration to document migrant farm workers in California, Dorothea Lange (a remarkable photojournalist and major early influence in documentary photography) came across the destitute Florence Owens Thompson and her family, and shot a series of portraits. This image, and Lange herself, became a subject of controversy when Florence Thompson was rediscovered in 1978. About the picture, she said “I wish [Lange] hadn’t taken my picture. I can’t get a penny out of it. She didn’t ask my name. She said she wouldn’t sell the pictures. She said she’d send me a copy. She never did.” (source).

The Library of Congress, Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a “Vengeance” dive bomber, Tennessee (LOC), 1944. Rosie the Riveter became an iconic cultural idea in World War II in the United States. As significant chunks of the labor force were outside of the country, all parts of the population – notably women and people of all races – became involved in traditionally male-dominated fields, including aircraft and munitions factories. Sadly the name of the subject in this photograph is unknown.

Royal Australian Historical Society, 03 – Sydney Harbour Bridge Construction, 1930. Although the start of construction predated the depression era of the late 1920s and 30s, the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was completed in the middle of the depression and was a major source of local employment. This image shows a point in construction close to where the two sides of the arch were to meet; two gigantic creeper cranes can be seen on either side. These cranes were used to lower steelwork to points below, including the deck of the bridge. An iconic structure in its own right, the Sydney Harbour Bridge was a feat of engineering at the time.

NASA on The Commons, Cresent Earth rises above lunar horizon, December 1972. This remarkable image of Earthrise was taken by astronaut Ronald E. Evans in the command module of Apollo 17 orbiting the moon while his colleagues were descending to the surface in the lander module.

New York Public Library, Head of the Statue of Liberty on display in a park in Paris, 1883. The Statue of Liberty was not a gift from France to America – it was the brainchild of sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi. He made several trips to the United States from France to pitch his idea of “Liberty Enlightening the World” to leaders of several cities. In 1872, he partnered with Edouard de Laboulaye to create the Franco-American Union, which raised funds to build the statue. In 1878 the statue’s head was on display for the Paris Exposition (the image above), and in 1884 the completed statue was on display in a courtyard next to Bartholdi’s studio – with a massive funding shortfall to get it to the United States. Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the daily tabloid New York World launched a campaign to raise funds to finish the project. Hundreds of thousands of dollars from private citizenry was raised as well as a significant donation from a laxative maker that advertised on the pedestal of the statue for a year. In 1886, ten years late, the statue was finally erected on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.

National Archives of Norway, Sex Pistols i Norge, 1977, 1977. Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols performing at the Student Union in Trondheim, Norway, 1977.

The U.S. National Archives, “The Tetons – Snake River,” Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming., 1941. In 1941, legendary landscape photographer Ansel Adams was commissioned by the Department of the Interior to take photographs of National Parks and reservations. This striking example of Adams’ mastery of landscape photography became one of the few images stored on a Voyager Golden Record: phonograph records containing records of life and culture on Earth and placed aboard Voyager 1 and 2.

Public Records Office Of Northern Ireland, Titanic, 1912. Built in Belfast, the RMS Titanic was the largest ship of its era. This is an image of the Titanic leaving for a day-long sea trial, where it was declared seaworthy. 12 days later and 5 days into its maiden voyage, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank.

African lioness named Rani, or Queen, sits with her newly born five cubs at the house of her owner who has grown her as a pet, Thursday, March 26, 2015, in Multan, Pakistan. The African lioness has given birth to five healthy cubs. Lions normally have litters of two or three cubs. (Photo by Asim Tanveer/AP Photo)

A newborn giraffe baby stands next to its mother Sandra in the Savannah House of the Budapest Zoo in Budapest, Hungary, Wednesday, March 25, 2015. The s*x of the calf could not have been determined yet. (Photo by Attila Kovacs/AP Photo/MTI)

Jalada Prasad, about six-month-old male Indian one-horned rhino runs around his enclosure on his debut to the public at Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata, India, Friday, March 27, 2015. The forest guards rescued Prasad when poachers at Jaldapara forest in north Bengal killed his mother in November 2014. He was brought to the zoo in January 2015 and was kept under strict vigil and nourishment, according to a zoo spokesperson. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

Felix, a 9-year-old male polar bear, shakes off water after swimming in a pool for the first time after winter at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a suburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 22, 2015. Felix was delivered to the zoo as a weak, orphaned cub from a scientific polar station on the Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean in May 2006, according to zoo representatives. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Felix, a 9-year-old male polar bear, swims in a pool for the first time after winter at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a suburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 22, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Buyan, a 15-year-old male Siberian brown bear, walks in its enclosure as he wakes up after winter hibernation at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a suburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 22, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Buyan, a 15-year-old male Siberian brown bear, walks in its enclosure as he wakes up after winter hibernation at the Royev Ruchey zoo in a suburb of Russia’s Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk March 22, 2015. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A wildlife department official holds a Malayan sun bear for the media at its head office in Kuala Lumpur, March 24, 2015. It was among other animals estimated to be worth $20,000, including juvenile eagles and a slow loris, seized by the wildlife department during an operation against illegal wildlife traders earlier this month. The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be $8 billion a year worldwide, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

A slow loris is carried in a cage by a wildlife department official at the head office in Kuala Lumpur March 24, 2015. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

An elephant family plays at the safari park in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, March 24, 2015. (Photo by Alex Lee/Reuters)

Lolita the Killer Whale is fed a fish by a trainer during a show at the Miami Seaquarium in Miami in this file photo from January 21, 2015. Animal activists seeking to free Lolita, a killer whale living in captivity for more than four decades, asked a federal appeals court in Florida March 24, 2015 to reconsider whether U.S. officials “rubber stamped” an aquarium’s license to keep her. (Photo by Andrew Innerarity/Reuters)

Paris zoo veterinarian Bastien Servieres works with a sea lion to acclimate it to his presence during a training session at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris March 26, 2015. A “behind-the-scenes” visit, with medical training and feeding of the animals, will be part of special presentations to the public as part of a month of celebration to commemorate the first anniversary of the re-opening of the park in April. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

Paris zoo veterinarian Bastien Servieres works with a sea lion to acclimate it to his presence during a training session at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris March 26, 2015. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

A zoo veterinarian feeds giraffes at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris March 26, 2015. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

Paris zoo veterinarian Bastien Servieres works with a sea lion to acclimate it to his presence during a training session at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris March 26, 2015. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

Paris zoo veterinarian Bastien Servieres works with a sea lion to acclimate it to his presence during a training session at the Paris Zoological Park in the Bois de Vincennes in the east of Paris March 26, 2015. (Photo by Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)

A rescue worker measures a recovered finless porpoise before releasing it back to the wild, in Poyang Lake, Jiangxi province, March 26, 2015. Oceanography and fishery experts said the finless porpoise has been endangered due to pollution and water shortage, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Brown bear Oska (R) and Roni (L) play in a bear sanctuary near the village of Mramor, Kosovo, 18 March 2015. The Bear Sanctuary Pristina has currently 16 brown bears in custody rescued from the private restaurants around Kosovo. All privately kept brown bears lived in small cages at restaurants. They were born mostly in the forests of Kosovo or Albania and snatched from their mothers by animal dealers. (Photo by Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA)

Beluga whales training at an open aviary, at the marine mammal scientific research base of the Primorye Oceanarium of the Far Eastern Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Vladivostok, Russia on February 17, 2015. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS/ZUMA Wire)

Ring Tailed Lemurs explore the new “In With The Lemurs” walk-through enclosure at The ZSL London Zoo, London, England, UK on Thursday 26th March, 2015. (Photo by Justin Ng/Retna Pictures/UPPA/ZUMA Wire)

Storks are seen in Biebesheim, central Germany on March 9, 2015 as the sun shines. (Photo by Boris Roessler/AFP Photo/DPA)

Recovering sea lion pups are fed herring in an enclosure at the Marine Mammal Center on March 18, 2015 in Sausalito, California. For the third winter in a row, hundreds of sick and starving California sea lions are washing up on California shores, with over 1,800 found and treated at rehabilitation centers throughout the state since the beginning of the year. The Marine Mammal Center is currently caring for 224 of the emaciated pups. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A vet from Chester Zoo catches one of the three as yet unnamed 12 week old Sumartran Tiger Cubs born earlier this year, to identify what sex they are and to vaccinate them, Friday March 27, 2015. The cubs, born in January to mum Kirana and dad Fabi, were found to be two males and one female. (Photo by Peter Byrne/AP Photo/PA Wire)

A vet from Chester Zoo catches one of the three as yet unnamed 12 week old Sumartran Tiger Cubs born earlier this year, to identify what sex they are and to vaccinate them, Friday March 27, 2015. (Photo by Peter Byrne/AP Photo/PA Wire)

A keeper holds a 12 week old Sumatran tiger cub during a routine health check in its enclosure at Chester Zoo in Chester northern England March 27, 2015. The cub, one of 3 born at the zoo, was sexed, vaccinated and micro-chipped. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)

A fox squirrel munches on a discarded glazed donut Wednesday, March 25, 2015, at Mill Race Park in Columbus, Ind. (Photo by Andrew Laker/AP Photo/The Republic)

Bateleur “Attila” sits in its enclosure in the bird park Marlow, eastern Germany, on March 21, 2015. The Global population of this animal is estimated at 10,000 to 100,000 individuals. (Photo by Bernd Wustneck/AFP Photo/DPA)

A yet unnamed polar bear cub is out and about with its mother “Vilma” for the first time in their enclosure at the zoo in Rostock, Germany, 25 March 2015. The 3.5 months old polar bear cub weights just about 20 kg and is to be baptized on 31 March 2015. (Photo by Bernd Wuestneck/EPA)

A picture made available on 25 March 2015 shows a cat yawning on a kitchen table at an apartment in Hamburg, Germany, 24 March 2015. Spring fever occurs mostly in spring time as the days get warmer. (Photo by Axel Heimken/EPA)

Lion cubs cuddle in the Gyongyos Zoo in Gyongyos, Hungary, 21 March 2015. The one male and two female cubs were born on 12 March 2015. (Photo by Peter Komka/EPA)

In this March 24, 2015, photo, California sea lions and harbor seals rest on the docks of the East End Mooring Basin in Astoria, Ore. During a Feb. 11 aerial survey, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife counted more than 1,200 California sea lions at the East End Mooring Basin, along with nearly 600 Steller and California sea lions on the South Jetty. On Friday March 20, spokeswoman Jessica Sall of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said, her agency counted 2,340 California sea lions at the East End Mooring Basin. (Photo by Joshua Bessex/AP Photo/Daily Astorian)

The fluffy yellow chick and its pug pal can be seen cuddling up to one another, snoozing next to each other and posing for the camera on March 23, 2015. The cute chick can even be seen planting a peck on the pups cheek. The pug named Fugly and chick called KFC, were introduced by their owners who live next door to one another in the Philippines. Fuglys owner Tim Ho, who captured these adorable images, explained how he and his neighbour both bought the animals as pets around the same time and introduced them to each other to see how theyd react.To their surprise KFC and Fugly almost immediately bonded. He said the fact that the pug, now 15 months old, wasnt yet territorial over his new home helped make it easier for them to develop their blossoming friendship. (Photo by Tim Ho/Caters News)

An adorable clouded leopard cub has become an Internet sensation for being so sensationally cute. The 2-week old kitten, who squeaks at meal times, is yet to be named and is currently being cared for 24/7 by staff at the Tampa Lowry Park Zoo in Florida. “He is very vocal, particularly near feeding time which occurs approximately every four hours”, the zoo’s rep said in a statement. The rare and fluffy cub’s father is called Yim and his mother is named Malee. The cub was born on March 7, 2015 and opened his eyes for the first time on on March 18. He is now beginning to learn to scoot along by himself. (Photo by TLPZ/Splash News and Pictures)

Going toe-to-toe, these fighting primates could give Floyd Mayweather a run for his money. The amazing images – captured by Australian tourist Julie Rathbone on the banks of the Zambezi river in Africa – show the pair engaging in a few fisticuffs. The Chacma baboons appeared to settle a disagreement by fighting – before a senior baboon plays referee and steps in to break it up. Nurse unit manager Julie Rathbone, 59, from New South Wales, was on a cruise down the river when she spotted the fracas unfolding. (Photo by Julie Rathbone/Caters News)

Two wood bison bulls weighing upward of 2,000 pounds move toward higher ground at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center on Sunday, March 22, 2015, in Portage, Alaska. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Sunday moved the first wood bison to a staging area in Shageluk, Alaska, for reintroduction in a few week to their native Alaska grazing grounds. Wood bison, which are larger than plains bison native found in Lower 48 states, disappeared from U.S. soil more than a century ago. (Photo by Dan Joling/AP Photo)

On March 31 the Swedish Museum Of Natural History opens a new exhibition called Fossils & Evolution. My part of this production was to provide illustrations of the animals in their natural environment. With permission from the museum, I’m releasing the material on my website. I couldn’t have done these images without the help from the following people at NRM: 

• Thomas Mörs - Senior Curator, Fossil Vertebrates 
• Stephen McLoughlin -Senior Curator, Paleobotany
• Christian Skovsted - Senior Curator, Fossil Invertebrates
  
• Daniella Kalthoff - Curator, Zoology
  
• Tove Frambäck - Producer

For the full series, go here.

For information about the exhibition go here.

Theater EXPENSIVE, only 1 movie showing, screen TINY, seat upright at beginning and end, and now I can?t locate my car. Free peanuts though.

— Ray Yamartino (@rayyamartino) March 21, 2015

4gifs:

Udder joy. [video]