Spain moves to control Catalonia, UK gender pay gap shrinks to 20-year low, and more trending news

The news professionals in the UK are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation in the comments below.

The Spanish senate has given the prime minister permission to take control of Catalonia. Article 155 of the Spanish constitution was enacted for the first time ever and means the president of Catalonia — Carles Puigdemont — can be removed from power on Saturday. The move came just after the Catalan parliament voted 70-10 in favour of breaking away from Spain and establishing an independent republic. Back on 1st October, a referendum was held in Catalonia – 90% of those who voted opted to leave Spain, but only 43% of those eligible to vote actually turned up and the Spanish government declared the referendum illegal.

The UK’s gender pay gap has narrowed to its lowest level in 20 years – but men are still getting paid 9.1% more than women. The gap was 9.4% last year, Office for National Statistics figures show, down from the veritable chasm of 17.4% in 1997 when the data was first collected. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of trade union organisation the TUC, warned the UK is still decades away from reaching full gender pay equality.

Half of workers between 40 and 65 don’t think they’ll have enough money to retire when they reach the national pension age. More than a third think they’ll still be working well into their late 60s, research by Age UK reveals. The charity thinks we should all undergo a “career MOT” around age 50, to assess whether workers need to top up retirement savings and to identify any missing skills or training needed to grow with a changing workplace.

Hotel booking websites could be in trouble for misleading travellers. Sites like Booking.com and Expedia are being investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority to check whether they’re breaking consumer law by preventing people from finding the best deals. We’ve all seen those warnings flash up that there’s “only one room remaining” or “20 people looking at this room”; the investigation will assess whether these rush customers into making bookings. The CMA will also study hidden charges, as it’s "concerned about the clarity, accuracy and presentation of information on sites".

One in five Brits think house prices will fall in the next year as households struggle under rising inflation and weak wage growth. Confidence in the UK housing market is its lowest in five years, Halifax bank survey results show. This gloomy outlook comes amid a slowdown in average house price growth, with a 5% year-on-year increase noted in August, down from around 8% just before last year’s Brexit vote.

Idea of the Day: “If you look for it, you’ll find time everywhere,” says Dennis R Mortensen, CEO and founder at x.ai. Be proactive about reducing time-wasters, evaluating how you spend your day, and developing processes to make the most of every minute. But that doesn’t mean you should spend the time you save doing more work:

“Humans are not machines. We need time to think and reflect. Allocate some of the time you’ve saved to invest in yourself and it will pay dividends later.”

What's your take? Share your thoughts on today’s stories in the comments.

— Emily Spaven / Share this using #DailyRundown