Business
True cost of becoming a mum highlighted in new data on pay
Femilola MillerMums in England face a “substantial and long-lasting reduction” in earnings after having children, according to new findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Five years after having their first child, mums’ earnings drop by an average of £1,051 a month compared with their salary one year before having a child.
Mums’ earnings continue to be affected after the births of second and third children.
Rachel Grocott, chief executive of campaign group Pregnant Then Screwed, called the findings “completely abhorrent” and said the impact of the motherhood penalty is “not just unfair – it’s avoidable”.
In the first dataset of its kind, the ONS has looked at the earnings and employment status of mums after having a first, second and third child over an eight-year period from April 2014 to December 2022.
Mums earn £313 a month less on average five years after the birth of their second child, and £689 a month less five years after their third child. Each figure is compared to their salary one year before each birth.
Mums suffer “maximum losses” in the first year after their children are born, when they are more likely to take extended parental leave than dads.
When compared with a mum’s earnings in the year before the birth of a child, the total loss in earnings over five years was:
- £65,618 for a first child
- £26,317 for a second child
- £32,456 for a third child
Femilola Miller, from London, has three children aged seven, five and three.
Before starting a family, she and her husband David had similar salaries, but he now earns £55,000 a year more than her.
Both she and her husband took several months off work after the birth of each child, “but every time my husband went back to work, he got a promotion”.
“Mothers are not compensated even if they return to work full time and are dedicated to their career.”
She believes the motherhood penalty is “engrained in society” and some people enforce the stereotypes “without even realising”, she says, remembering several comments people had made to her about whether she would return to work after having children.
“It was not even a question about what was going to happen to David’s career,” she says.
“I had a career before I had children and I want to carry on working full-time.”
Femilola MillerAlthough the gender pay gap is slowly reducing in the UK, women working full time still earn 7% less than men.
Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, said the motherhood penalty was “a perfect storm of bias, outdated legislation and cultural norms”.
She added “the vast majority” of the gender pay gap is linked to the motherhood penalty, which can be attributed to a number of factors, including:
- unaffordable childcare costs for some families
- an unbalanced parental leave system
- some jobs not offering flexible and part-time working hours
- pregnancy and maternity discrimination
The government has introduced 30 hours a week of funded childcare for working parents and is undertaking a review of parental leave.
New laws also came into force in England, Wales and Scotland last year which give women greater protection against redundancy while pregnant or on maternity leave.
But, according to research from Pregnant then Screwed and Women in Data, up to 74,000 new or expectant mums lose their jobs each year due to pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
Evie JayEvie, 33, from Newcastle, says she feels as though her career is “on hold” until her daughter goes to school.
Evie initially reduced her hours at work when three-year-old Ellie was born, but now works 35 hours a week in the NHS.
She wants to retrain as a therapist, but doing so would mean she could no longer work from home, which isn’t compatible with her childcare arrangements.
She described becoming a mum as “the best thing that’s happened to me, but career-wise, it has been a punishment”.
“You’re expected to be a parent like you don’t work, but work like you haven’t got kids. You can’t win.”
Emma Potts, manager of Market Place Cafe in Stoke-on-Trent, says it is “a really difficult balance” for small businesses like hers to accommodate flexible working, part-time hours or maternity cover.
“We always try to be as supportive as possible, but the reality is that in a small team, flexibility is much harder to manage.”
If staff members were to reduce their hours to part-time, “it would cause real issues”, she says.
“Ultimately, smaller businesses like ours don’t have the luxury of large teams or spare capacity.
“Every shift matters, every deadline matters, and every absence makes a difference.”
Katie Guild, co-founder of Nugget Savings, a business that helps new and expectant parents with financial planning, says the impact of having children can be “shocking” on finances, but there are a number of things parents can do.
This includes checking which benefits you are entitled to and ensuring your employer still contributes to your pension based on your salary as it was before maternity leave.
“Unfortunately, a lot of what we deal with is mothers having difficult situations with their employers and not knowing whether they have a leg to stand on legally,” she says.
“Knowing your rights is really crucial.”
Business
Private sector data: Over 2 lakh private companies closed in 5 years; govt flags monitoring for suspicious cases – The Times of India
NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said that over the past five years, more than two lakh private companies have been closed in India.According to data provided by Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra in a written reply to the Lok Sabha, a total of 2,04,268 private companies were shut down between 2020-21 and 2024-25 due to amalgamation, conversion, dissolution or being struck off from official records under the Companies Act, 2013.Regarding the rehabilitation of employees from these closed companies, the minister said there is currently no proposal before the government, as reported by PTI. In the same period, 1,85,350 companies were officially removed from government records, including 8,648 entities struck off till July 16 this fiscal year. Companies can be removed from records if they are inactive for long periods or voluntarily after fulfilling regulatory requirements.On queries about shell companies and their potential use in money laundering, Malhotra highlighted that the term “shell company” is not defined under the Companies Act, 2013. However, he added that whenever suspicious instances are reported, they are shared with other government agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department for monitoring.A major push to remove inactive companies took place in 2022-23, when 82,125 companies were struck off during a strike-off drive by the corporate affairs ministry.The minister also highlighted the government’s broader policy to simplify and rationalize the tax system. “It is the stated policy of the government to gradually phase out exemptions and deductions while rationalising tax rates to create a simple, transparent, and equitable tax regime,” he said. He added that several reforms have been undertaken to promote investment and ease of doing business, including substantial reductions in corporate tax rates for existing and new domestic companies.
Pakistan’s textile exports surged to $6.4 billion during the first four months of the 2025-26 fiscal year, marking the highest trade volume for the sector in this period.
According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), value-added textile sectors were key contributors to the growth.
Knitwear exports reached $1.9 billion, while ready-made garments contributed $1.4 billion.
Significant increases were observed across several commodities: cotton yarn exports rose 7.74% to $238.9 million, and raw cotton exports jumped 100%, reaching $2.6 million from zero exports the previous year.
Other notable gains included tents, canvas, and tarpaulins, up 32.34% to $53.48 million, while ready-made garments increased 5.11% to $1.43 billion.
Exports of made-up textile articles, excluding towels and bedwear, rose 4.17%, totaling $274.75 million.
The report also mentioned that the growth in textile exports is a result of improved global demand and stability in the value of the Pakistani rupee.
UK investment bank Peel Hunt has given some support to under-pressure Chancellor Rachel Reeves over last week’s Budget as it said efforts to boost the London market and invest in UK companies were “positive steps”.
Peel Hunt welcomed moves announced in the Budget, such as the stamp duty exemption for shares bought in newly listed firms on the London market and changes to Isa investing.
It comes as Ms Reeves has been forced to defend herself against claims she misled voters by talking up the scale of the fiscal challenge in the run-up to last week’s Budget, in which she announced £26 billion worth of tax rises.
Peel Hunt said: “Following a prolonged period of pre-Budget speculation, businesses and investors now have greater clarity from which they can start to plan.
“The key measures were generally well received by markets, particularly the creation of additional headroom against the Chancellor’s fiscal rules.
“Initiatives such as a stamp duty holiday on initial public offerings (IPOs) and adjustments to the Isa framework are intended to support UK capital markets and encourage investment in British companies.
“These developments, alongside the Entrepreneurship in the UK paper published simultaneously, represent positive steps toward enhancing the UK’s attractiveness for growth businesses and long-term investors.”
Ms Reeves last week announced a three-year stamp duty holiday on shares bought in new UK flotations as part of a raft of measures to boost investment in UK shares.
She also unveiled a change to the individual savings account (Isa) limit that lowers the cash element to £12,000 with the remaining £8,000 now redirected into stocks and shares.
But the Chancellor also revealed an unexpected increase in dividend tax, rising by 2% for basic and higher rate taxpayers next year, which experts have warned “undermines the drive to increase investing in Britain”.
Peel Hunt said the London IPO market had begun to revive in the autumn, although listings activity remained low during its first half to the end of September.
Firms that have listed in London over recent months include The Beauty Tech Group, small business lender Shawbrook and tinned tuna firm Princes.
Peel Hunt added that deal activity had “continued at pace” throughout its first half, with 60 transactions announced across the market during that time and 10 active bids for FTSE 350 companies, as at the end of September.
Half-year results for Peel Hunt showed pre-tax profits jumped to £11.5 million in the six months to September 30, up from £1.2 million a year earlier, as revenues lifted 38.3%.
Peel Hunt said its workforce has been cut by nearly 10% since the end of March under an ongoing savings drive, with full-year underlying fixed costs down by around £5 million.
Steven Fine, chief executive of Peel Hunt, said: “The second half has started strongly, with the group continuing to play leading roles across both mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets mandates.”
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