London’s Ethnicity Pay Gap Sees Minority Workers Paid 22% Less

(Bloomberg) -- Workers from ethnic minority groups in London are paid 21.7% less on average than white employees, according to Office for National Statistics data.

The capital -- which is home to the highest proportion of workers identifying as being from an ethnic minority group -- had the largest pay gap in the country last year, figures drawn from the Annual Population Survey showed. Across the whole of Britain the difference was 3.8%, with employees from a minority ethnicity earning more in the north east and east regions.

White British people account for almost 80% of the working population, the report said. White workers of other nationalities, such as European or Australian, were the second largest group and had the highest employment rate.

The data published Tuesday showed Chinese and Indian employees posted the highest median hourly pay, while Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers had the lowest. While the ethnicity pay gap between ethnic groups narrowed once other characteristics such as education and occupation were taken into account, some “significant gaps” still remain, the ONS said.

After the introduction of mandatory gender pay gap reporting in the U.K., the government is considering the possibility of also requiring companies to publish data on wage disparities for citizens of “Black, Asian and minority ethnic,” or BAME, origins. A public consultation ended in January and already some firms, including PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and broadcaster ITN, have voluntarily decided to release their own numbers.

Read more: Why the Ethnicity Pay Gap Is Even More Complicated Than Gender

To contact the reporter on this story: Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Gordon at pgordon6@bloomberg.net, Brian Swint, David Goodman

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