Calls for ethnicity pay-gap reporting to be introduced for big businesses

Influential group ask the UK Government to act on the results of a consultation that finished in January 2019

Sandra Kerr CBE, Race Director: Business in the Community
Author: Mick CoylePublished 15th Oct 2020
Last updated 15th Oct 2020

A leading business group is calling on the UK Government to make large companies publish how much they pay people from different ethnic backgrounds.

Plans were set out under a consultation last year, but it has not yet been made law.

Proposals would see businesses reveal whether they pay the same amount, regardless of ethnicity, and would sit alongside gender pay gap reporting, which was introduced in 2017.

Sandra Kerr CBE is Race Director for Business in the Community:

"Gender pay gap reporting didn't just morph into ethnicity pay gap reporting. They spearheaded the consultation and said that 'We're ready to act if employers didn't act voluntarily' and yet they haven't done so.

"The time for action is now because that consultation closed in January 2019, we had meetings throughout the year and now we're into 2020 and this year's almost finished.

"Just like gender pay gap reporting isn't a silver bullet that fixes everything, neither does this, but what it does is get the conversation at the top table where it needs to be."

Race At Work Survey

BITC are long term advocates of making the workplace a more even playing field for people from BAME backgrounds.

Their "Race At Work" report highlights the inequalities people from black backgrounds face at work, including being overlooked for promotion, paid less than colleagues in similar roles, and not getting credit for work they've delivered.

Findings suggest tackling the disparities in British business will add £24bn to the UK economy.

Get a copy of their most recent report here

Sandra tells Senior Correspondent Mick Coyle how you can be a better colleague to BAME co-workers where you work.

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