First, at present gender pay gap reporting in the UK only covers companies with more than 250 employees. In practice, this means it covers only around 40% of the UK working population in the private sector.15 To tackle the pay gap comprehensively, this suggests there is a strong case for extending the pay reporting regime to smaller companies – say, those with 30 or more staff. Second, there is currently no compulsory system of company reporting on the ethnicity pay gap in the UK, though the government has consulted on doing so. The ethnicity pay gap is at least as large as for females, and if anything has been more persistent, as shown by the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition results. In my opinion, there are therefore strong grounds for extending compulsory reporting to ethnicity as well as gender. This analysis also emphasises the importance of looking at labour market outcomes for different ethnic minority groups, rather than necessarily treating ethnic minorities as a single group. Third, at present only a handful of countries internationally require companies to publish gender and ethnicity pay gaps. There is a strong case for reporting diversity pay gaps, on an internationally-harmonised basis, to allow cross-country as well as cross-company comparison. Given their expertise on labour market issues, this might be something on which the OECD could lead. The international central banking community could also help lead by example. The benefits of internationally-harmonised disclosures, as an incentive device for action, have recently been demonstrated in the case of climate change disclosures.
Ivan Iskrov: Bulgaria and the Francophonian movement Speech by Mr Ivan Iskrov, Governor of the Bulgarian National Bank, at the opening of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Governors of the Central Banks from the Francophonian countries, Sofia, 12 May 2006. *  *  *  Dear Governors, Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Bulgaria, one of the oldest countries in Europe! It is a pleasure and honour for me to open the 13th Meeting of the Governors of the Central Banks from the Francophonian countries. I am also very much flattered by the fact that this meeting is for the first time held in a country from Central and Eastern Europe and it is precisely the Bulgarian National Bank's privilege to host such an event. This is also the year of the centennial anniversary of the birth of Leopold Cedar Senghor - the founder of the Intergovernmental Francophone Agency and the conceptual father of the Francophone Movement (La Francophonie). Tomorrow, the conceptual father of our gatherings and ECB honourable President, Jean-Claude Trichet, will join us. The fact that the BNB hosts this meeting is not only the result of the formal acceptance of Bulgaria to the Francophonian community in the early 90-ies of the past century. The French language and culture made their way into the country already in the first half of the XIX century when we were still part of the Ottoman empire.