Workers belonging to the Bangladeshi ethnic group on average have the lowest earnings when compared to their White British counterparts, a new study based on official statistics revealed on Tuesday.
The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) found in its ‘Ethnicity Pay Gaps in Great Britain: 2018’ analysis that on average ethnic minorities earn 3.8 per cent less than white ethnic groups, with the Bangladeshi ethnic group on average earning 20.2 per cent less than White British employees. Indians and Chinese tend to buck the trend by having higher average earnings but workers in both the Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnic groups tend to have the largest pay gaps when compared to the White British ethnic group.
Hugh Stickland, senior ONS analyst, said: "Overall, employees from certain ethnic groups such as Indian and Chinese, have higher average earnings than their white British counterparts.
"However, all other ethnic groups have average wages lower than for white British employees, with employees from the Bangladeshi ethnic group having the largest pay gap. However, once characteristics such as education and occupation are taken into account, the pay gap between white British and most other ethnic groups becomes narrower, though significant differences still remain."
The data, based on median gross hourly earnings between 2012 and 2018, shows that the Chinese ethnicity group is the highest paid, receiving GBP 15.75 an hour in 2018, followed by the Indian ethic group, which earns GBP 13.47 an hour. The Bangladeshi ethnic group had the lowest median hourly pay of GBP 9.60 with the second-lowest paid group being of Pakistani origin at GBP 10 an hour. These two ethnic groups also registered the lowest employment rates at 58.2 per cent for Pakistan and 54.9 per cent for Bangladesh.
However, while the gender pay gap was also most pronounced among the ethnic groups with higher median gross hourly earnings, with Indian men earning 23.3 per cent more per hour than Indian women, women in the Bangladeshi ethnic group were found to earn more than their male counterparts – with a 10.5 per cent gap.
The ONS also found that where someone is born can have an influence on how much they are paid.
"By comparing those who were born in the UK and those who were not, it may give us an idea of what sort of effect having a UK education and the higher likelihood of speaking English as a first language may have on those from an ethnic minority background," the ONS said.
“For the Bangladeshi, Black African, Caribbean or Black British, Pakistani, Other and Asian Other ethnic groups, we estimate the largest differences between the pay gaps for UK-born and non-UK born employees,” it added.
It found those in the Bangladeshi ethnic group who had been born in the UK earned 8 per cent less than white British employees, but for Bangladeshi employees born outside the UK the gap was 26.8 per cent.
The first-of-its-kind ethnicity pay gap analysis is expected to inform future UK government policies around monitoring of pay gaps between different segments of British society.