The #EthnicityPayGap Campaign was established in 2018. Its main aim and purpose is to raise awareness of the issues relating to the ethnicity pay gap and encourage the government to make ethnicity pay gap reporting mandatory. The campaign is also calling on the government to ensure that businesses fully demonstrate that they are taking every action to close the gap and ensure accountability. Correspondingly we call for clear guidelines on reporting to help support businesses to understand how to produce pay gap analysis that is meaningful and actionable.
The campaign has worked with organisations, providing them with education and support which has enabled them to fully understand the causes behind the ethnicity pay gap, exploring the impact and the challenges individuals face. We recognise that the ethnicity pay gap creates hardship for black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups and it is incumbent on organisations to ensure that they make all efforts to eradicate barriers that have the potential to cause pay inequalities.
As the founder of the #EthnicityPayGap Campaign, I am in a unique position to review this guidance from NHS Providers and Hempsons. It is extremely refreshing to see the focus on intersectionality, the need to review policies and procedures, and the need to disaggregate data to enable organisations to act on the ethnicity pay gap. This guidance also underlines the importance of centring black, Asian and other minority ethnic employees, addressing the full range of barriers that contribute to the ethnicity pay gap and the need for accountability at executive level.
Taking action against the ethnicity pay gap in your organisation is likely to be a key action in strategic plans on workforce, anti-racism and tackling inequalities. As the guide illustrates, improvement on any identified disparities will require you to apply a holistic view that puts your people at the centre of your future endeavours. That will mean looking at your talent pipeline, reviewing your recruitment policies and procedures, and ensuring your external providers are fully supporting your actions.
This guide gives practical guidance, case studies highlighting action taken by others, and provides a list of questions for board members to consider when examining their own data and interventions.
I hope you will utilise the information provided within this guide to help you understand your ethnicity pay gap; to ask the challenging questions in order to identify the true causes of the disparity and ensure you have interventions in place that will enable you to reduce the ethnicity pay gap in your organisation.
Dianne Greyson
Founder #EthnicityPayGap Campaign and non-executive director Spktral