White families out-earn black ones by half

WHITE households earn more than one-and-a-half times as much as black households, according to official figures, highlighting the financial inequality in Britain.

White families come out as the highest earners in rankings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with an income before taxes and benefits averaging almost £42,400.

By contrast black families earned an average of just below £26,000 in the year to April 2019.

Much of the gap is closed after taxes and benefits are taken into account.

Actions by the Government narrow the spread of earnings to under £6,000, cutting white families’ earnings to £38,222 on average, while boosting the final incomes of black households to £32,353. White Britons have the highest income of any ethnic group in this analysis, although previous ONS studies indicated that Uk-born workers of Chinese ethnicity typically earned the most, followed by Indian households.

White workers have a higher employment rate, partly explaining the earnings gap and are also typically older than those of other ethnicities, and more likely to have higher pay.

When households are ranked by income level rather than ethnicity, the highest-earning 40 per cent typically pay more into the Treasury in taxes than they get in benefits.

The top 20 per cent of earners contribute an average of just over £33,500 into the public purse. In contrast the lowest-earning 20 per cent receive almost £11,300 in benefits per year.

Other inequalities were also laid bare by the ONS, particularly with regard to exposure to Covid-19.

Among the lowest-earning fifth of the workforce, 40 per cent are in jobs which are highly exposed to the virus.

Only just over a quarter of those in highly paid jobs are exposed because company directors and financial advisers, for example, do not come into contact with anywhere near as many people as care workers or supermarket staff.