Wage gap, contactless cards, debt and motor insurance

Women who return to work part-time after having a baby continue to earn less than men for many years afterwards, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The wage gap between men and women becomes steadily wider in the years after babies are born, the IFS says. Women miss out on promotions and accrue less experience than men, which holds back their earning power, it adds. During the subsequent 12 years, the gap grows to 33 per cent of men’s hourly pay rates. A second report from the Chartered Management Institute suggests men are more likely than women to have been promoted into senior roles last year.  Its analysis of more than 60,000 UK employees found that 14 per cent of men in management roles were promoted into higher positions, but only 10 per cent of women. Contactless cards The days of tapping in a pin code at the tills are numbered as contactless card readers spread across the country, with more tap-and-pay purchases occurring in the first six months of the year than all of 2015.