London’s Ethnicity Pay Gap Shows Minority Workers Paid 24% Less

Workers from ethnic minority groups in London are paid almost a quarter less than White British employees.

Lucy Meakin

12 Oct 2020, 08:06 PM IST

London’s Ethnicity Pay Gap Shows Minority Workers Paid 24% Less

Volunteers from Street Corner Resources stand while protesters, not pictured, shout slogans during the painting of a ‘Black Lives Matter’ mural along Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on Thursday, July 9, 2020. (Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Workers from ethnic minority groups in London are paid almost a quarter less than White British employees, by far the biggest pay gap in the country.

Nationally, the difference shrank to 2.3%, the smallest since 2012, the Office for National Statistics reported Monday. The figures are based on overall average pay in the workforce. In the east of England, workers from a minority ethnicity were paid more.

The size of the gap in London is in part attributable to the higher income levels for both groups in the capital, giving a greater scope for large disparity, the ONS said.

The introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting by companies in the U.K. has added momentum to calls for greater understanding of pay disparities between ethnic groups. The simple comparison between White and ethnic minority groups masks a wide variety of experiences, the ONS warned.

White Irish, Chinese, Indian, and the White and Asian ethnicity groups have consistently out-earned White British workers since the statistics agency began compiling the data in 2012. Pakistani workers had the largest pay disparity last year, the figures show.