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5. Equality in employment
[ch 5: page 33]Addressing pay inequality
There is systemic pay bias in the UK workforce, and some groups of BAME workers experience substantial pay disadvantages compared with white workers, called “ethnicity pay gaps” (see box for definition). For example, in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics, the pay gap for Pakistani workers compared with white workers in England and Wales stood at 16% in 2019, while for Bangladeshi workers it was 15%.
What is an ethnicity pay gap?
An ethnicity pay gap is defined as the percentage difference in average hourly pay between the ethnic group under consideration and the white group. This can be measured across the economy, or parts of the economy, but also at individual employer level.
The real-life pay disadvantage faced by BAME workers is not easily shown on a national basis, as it is influenced by people’s particular ethnicity and gender, where they work and in what occupations, among many other factors. Raw national averages mask the true scale of many of the gaps.
For example, a higher proportion of BAME employees than white employees work in London (40% do so), where wages tend to be higher. This pushes up their average hourly pay across the country, reducing the apparent pay gap with white employees. But in fact those BAME workers in the capital face massive pay disadvantage compared with white London workers, and they experience an ethnicity pay gap of 24%.