Its time we had a public debate about the ethnicity pay gap
In April 2017, the government made it a requirement for employers with 250 or more staff to publish and report details of their gender pay gap. The “big 4” professional services firms have however voluntarily published data for their ethnicity pay gap, and all have made commitments to close the gap.
PwC state that their the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employees and partners earn on average 35.9% less than their white colleagues (for comparison, PwC’s gender pay gap is 43.8%). KMPG show a 34% pay gap. At Deloitte, the average pay gap is 34.7%, and at EY the pay gap is 38.1%.
Much of these values are influenced by the lack of senior representation of minority communities at these firms.
The big 4 carry a considerably more diverse workforce than the average UK company, and figures elsewhere are very likely to be worse.
A petition has been set up to ask the government to extend the mandatory pay reporting rules to all companies to reveal their ethnicity pay gap. The gender pay requirements have kick started a debate about the prejudice and challenges women face in the workplace, it’s time we had the same debate about race in the workplace.
