End of ethnic pay gap

Young employees from minority groups now get more than white British workers

YOUNG workers from ethnic minority backgrounds now earn more on average than their white British counterparts, figures reveal.

The analysis shows that the ethnicity pay gap has vanished for those who began their careers over the past 15 years.

The gap had been a major target for activists during a summer dominated by Black Lives Matter campaigning. Yet ethnic minority workers under the age of 30 now earn on average 5.5 per cent more than workers classed as white British.

The findings from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – based on large-scale surveys collected since 2012 – also show that women from ethnic minority groups typically earn more than white British women.

Overall the ethnicity pay gap among workers of all ages and both sexes stood at 2.3 per cent in 2019, according to the report.

That figure is little more than quarter of the 8.4 per cent gap in 2014.

The figures mean that across all age groups, an average white British worker gets £12.40 an hour and an average minority worker £12.11.

Different minority groups experience different pay levels, the report said.

The best-paid include Indian workers, who average nearly £2 an hour more than white British workers, and Chinese workers, who get nearly £3 more.

On top of the table are white Irish workers, averaging £17.55 an hour.

The worst-paid workers from major ethnic groups are Pakistani and Bangladeshi employees, on £10.55 and £10.58 an hour, respectively.

However, the shape of the ethnicity pay gap is transformed for workers under the age of 30, the ONS said.

Reasons for the higher earnings of younger minority workers ‘could include improved labour market outcomes for second and third-generation migrants or alternatively, different rates of earnings progression between employees in different ethnic groups’, the ONS said.

Among workers under 30, Pakistani employees earn just 2 per cent less than the £9.82 an hour of young white British employees. Young Bangladeshi workers earn 2 per cent more than young white British workers,

Indian and Chinese staff among best paid

and black Caribbean employees average 3 per cent more.

Young black African workers typically make 13 per cent more than young white British counterparts; Indian workers under 30 are paid 15 per cent more, and white Irish 31 per cent. Chinese employees under 30 are paid an average of £14.29 an hour – 46 per cent more than an average white British worker in the same age group.

The figures are drawn from the ONS Annual Population Survey, which questions more than 300,000 people a year. The report warned that too few people had been questioned to ensure accurate estimates for some small ethnic groups.

It added: ‘In 2019, ethnic minority men earned 6.1 per cent less than white men while the hourly pay of ethnic minority women was 2.1 per cent more than white women.’

Women from three groups – black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Arab – earned on average more than men of the same background.

There has seen growing pressure on employers to publish details of employee pay broken down by different ethnic groups, just as they must make public pay levels for men and women.

In June, Operation Black Vote chief Lord Woolley, comedian Sir Lenny Henry, and author Afua Hirsch signed an open letter calling for the pay gap to be disclosed. They said: ‘We can talk about black successes, but in truth many of those successes come in spite of the obstacles black individuals face: for most the reality is deprivation, not opportunity.’

Yesterday the call was repeated by the Left-leaning think-tank the Resolution Foundation.

Economist George Bangham said: ‘While progress has been made in reducing ethnicity pay gaps for some groups, such as Indian and Bangladeshi workers, gaps have actually got larger for others, such as black Caribbean, and white and black African workers. As a result, millions of black, Asian and ethnic minority workers still face significant pay gaps compared to white British workers.

‘It cannot be right that a black African worker earns 13 per cent less per hour than a white British worker of a similar age, and in a similar job.’