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Pay Me in Dollars: UK Employees Hit by Pound Weakness
Firms facing a tighter labour market and war for global talent are dealing with questions about compensation.
Photographer: Stephen Hilger/Bloomberg
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It’s a question UK staff at firms ranging from big banks to small startups have been asking for months: “Could you pay me in dollars instead of pounds?”
It felt like a no-brainer to Hamish Drake, a senior director at recruiter Montresor Legal in London. His client was a large US law firm. The contract they negotiated was based in dollars. And with sterling sliding to its weakest level against the greenback since the mid-1980s, being paid by the client in dollars rather than pounds would have meant making more money for the same amount of work.