Some ethnic groups are still earning up to 18.5% less per hour than white employees, ethnicity pay gap figures for 2022 have revealed.
Employees with a mixed ethnicity of White and Black Caribbean background had the lowest median gross hourly earnings in 2022 (£11.75) compared with White British employees (£14.42), according to the Office for National Statistics.
White Irish employees had the highest median gross hourly rate (£20.20), which was 40.1% higher than the average White British employee.
Country of birth is an important pay-determining factor, according to the ONS. Its ethnicity pay gap figures for 2022 showed that UK-born employees across all ethnicity groups earn more than those born outside of the UK, except for White, and Mixed or Multiple ethnic employees.
Ethnicity pay gap 2022
Ethnicity pay gap reporting ‘not appropriate’ for all employers
Although Black, African, Caribbean or Black British employees earn less than White employees in general, UK-born Black British employees earn more (£15.18), while non-UK Black British employees earned the least (£12.95) compared with UK-born White employees (£14.26).
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the figures suggested that there is still a case for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting legislation.
Last year the government confirmed that it would not be going ahead with plans for a statutory ethnicity pay gap regime.
Guidance released earlier this year noted that it can be valuable, but would not be appropriate for every employer because of issues with data collection and the potential for numbers to be skewed by low numbers of employees within certain ethnic groups.
Nowak said: “No worker should be held back or paid less because of racism at work. But structural racism still plays a big role in determining Black workers’ pay and career prospects – and this government has done nothing to change that.
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“Labour’s New Deal for Working People would help tackle the discrimination that holds BME workers back by introducing a new duty on employers to report their ethnicity pay gap.”
