Analysis: Ethnic minority workers earn much less than white counterparts within the same firm

An image of Professor Alex Bryson in front of a tree Writing in The Conversation, Professor Alex Bryson (UCL Social Research Institute), Dr John Forth (City University) and Dr Nikolaos Theodoropoulos (University of Cyprus) report on their new research into wage disparities found between ethnic minorities and white counterparts. Ethnic minorities make up an ever larger share of the UK workforce. Where just over 6% of all workers were from minority backgrounds 20 years ago, now it's nearly 14%. Yet employees from non-white ethnic groups still tend to earn less than similarly qualified white employees. The overall gap in median wages was 2% in 2019, according to the latest figures from the UK's Office for National Statistics. However, after taking account of other differences, such as age and education, the current gap widens to around 10%. A recent Bank of England study estimated the gap to be 10% for men and 9% for women.