A petition calling for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting has thus far obtained 108,310 signatures as of the 15th June 2020. Having hit the target of receiving 100,000 signatures, therefore, the subject of the petition must now be considered for a debate in parliament.
Mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting
The Government launched a consultation into whether to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting on the 11th October 2018, with a closing date for submissions of the 11th January 2019. However, since the consultation closed, the Government has yet to respond, with Brexit and coronavirus having taken up most of the Government's time since that point.Â
The Government consultation was launched following a review by Baroness McGregor-Smith published back in February 2017. The review recommended mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for employers with 50 or more employees, who would then be required to publish their data. However, the Government's preferred threshold is employers with 250 or more employees, in line with gender pay gap reporting, with the Government stating: "The government believes that employers of fewer than 250 people should not be expected to publish ethnicity pay data. Although Baroness McGregor-Smith originally recommended a threshold of 50 employees, our judgement is that this risks imposing too great a burden on business. A threshold of over 250 employees would mirror the gender pay gap reporting methodology."
With little progress having been made since the consultation closed back in January 2019, however, a petition was set up on the parliamentary petitions website. Once a petition has garnered 100,000 signatures or more, it must then be considered for a debate in parliament. Thus far, the petition has received 108,310 signatures, and the issue of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting will therefore now be considered for debate.
The Resolution Foundation Report
A report by the Resolution Foundation back in December 2018 found that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) workers are being collectively paid £3.2 billion per annum less than their white colleagues. The report also found that:-
- There is an ethnicity pay gap of 17% for black male graduates, which equates to £3.90 per hour
- Amongst black female graduates, the ethnicity pay gap is 9%, which amounts to £1.62 per hour
- The gap for Pakistani and Bangladeshi male graduates is 12%, which equates to £2.67 per hour. Amongst male non-graduates, the gap rises to 14%
- The ethnicity pay gap amongst no0n-graduates was generally less
Given these disparities, Kathleen Henehan, a research and policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, states that mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting is essential. She states that: "After the successful steps taken to expose and tackle the gender pay gap in 2018, we now need greater accountability on the ethnic pay gap...The government can make this happen by requiring large firms to report their BAME pay gaps alongside the reporting they’re already doing on gender. The results should give firms an extra incentive to tackle these issues."
Government Response
Back in October 2018 when the Government consultation on mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting was launched, the Government responded by stating that: "Diversity is good for businesses and this government is committed to ensuring the workplace works for everyone. We’ve introduced new laws to help companies ensure the make-up of their boards and senior management is representative of their workforces and we’re currently consulting on proposals for mandatory ethnicity pay reporting as part of a series of measures to help employers tackle ethnic disparities in the workplace."
Furthermore, writing in the Daily Telegraph on the 14th June 2020, the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that there would be a cross-government commission (the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities), overseen by Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, to examine inequality across the board, including in the work place. The commission will report with recommendations by the end of 2020. The Prime Minister said that the job of the commission would be to examine "all aspects of inequality – in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life."
