Unequal opportunities | Almost half of business leaders think their company has an ethnicity pay gap

Almost half of UK business leaders believe their company has an ethnicity pay gap, according to research by D&I consultancy and global network INvolve.

Marking the release of INvolve’s annual Empower Role Model Lists of 220 businesspeople playing a central role in breaking down barriers at work for Black people and other ethnic minorities, the research also found that 95% of employees are willing to share their ethnicity with their employer, meaning that the ability to measure and report on the ethnicity pay gap is well within the grasp of employers.

The ease of collecting this data calls into question the Government’s recent refusal to make ethnicity pay gap reporting compulsory, citing ‘significant statistical and data issues.’ In February, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee called for legislation to introduce the metric for companies with over 250 employees, as is already the case with gender pay gap reporting. The research presented by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee made a strong economic argument for ethnicity pay gap reporting, pointing out that addressing race inequality in the UK labour market could boost the UK economy by £24 billion a year.

"Too difficult"