Santa has a great reputation. Generous, jolly, snazzily dressed. But he’s obviously a terrible employer. The elves are entirely unpaid for their gruelling manual labour. Their fixed smiles and constant singing are evidence of a culture of fear. Does anyone believe he’s keeping the Lapland workplace temperature above the Health and Safety Executive’s 16C minimum? And the reindeer’s 24-hour shift this week will be a clear breach of the working time directive.
The complete lack of progression (not to mention a highly segregated workforce) is another warning sign. Everyone has been doing the same job for centuries – which works for Santa at the top, but means few opportunities for others to move on up.
If you won’t take my word for it, consider new research examining whether employees are better off in family-run firms – such as Claus Inc. Focusing on real-life Italian companies, the authors show that workers earn less in family firms.
What’s going on? Half of the lower pay simply reflects family-run firms employing fewer skilled workers. And much of the remaining gap is due to such firms tending to be less productive.
Most interestingly, family firms pay less on average because they have fewer higher-earning staff, including senior managers. Internal promotions into senior jobs are relatively rare, and come with smaller pay rises than elsewhere when they occur.
The researchers put this down to family owners being reluctant to delegate control. Consistent with that, family firm performance drops more when a chief executive dies. Now it’s true the sleigh probably isn’t getting flown without Santa. But that’s no excuse for not giving Rudolph a raise.
• Torsten Bell is Labour MP for Swansea West and author of Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back
