Employers admit there’s a gender pay gap. What about race?

One version of the national story we tell ourselves is that postwar migrants, particularly people of colour from the “new commonwealth”, helped support our public services, notably the National Health Service and London transport. There is something poetic in the fact that the first NHS hospital was opened within months of the arrival of Empire Windrush; yet something almost tragic that, seven decades later, their grandchildren are experiencing racial inequality at work.

A new study has found that ethnic minority workers in the capital’s public sector face a pay gap of up to 37%.The finding is not exactly surprising, but it is particularly depressing in this year, the 70th anniversary of Windrush and half a century since the 1968 Race Relations Act finally outlawed the infamous “no blacks, no Irish, no dogs” signs.

Across the UK, and particularly in London, racial diversity is nothing new. Yet a report last year from the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that “broadly speaking, in the period 1993-2014, there has been very little narrowing of ethnic pay gaps and for some groups they have actually increased, particularly among men”.

There is clearly discrimination in employment, with people with equivalent qualification but with African and Asian surnames having to send in twice as many CVs just to get an interview. Black and minority-ethnic people are also more likely to face disciplinary action and other decisions that most affect progression and pay.

Source: theguardian