BUSINESSES with more than 250 employees are being encouraged to mandatory reporting on salaries to address the gap in racial pay scales.
Legislation was proposed by The Runnymede Trust and ShareAction, a non-profit that promotes ethical investing, to remove the “deep-rooted inequality” in pay seen during the previous four years.
Making it essential to report ethnicity pay gap differentials, according to a policy statement released by the two groups, is the first step to monitoring and addressing the scope of racial inequalities and combating structural racism in businesses.
The new policy briefing sets out recommendations (below) to the Government to meaningfully roll out mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap (EPG) reporting, and addresses key concerns that are acting as a barrier.
Together the Runnymeade Trust and ShareAction recommend –
1. Legislating for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting for employers with 250+ employees.
2. Enacting new legislation that would require employers to publish a supporting narrative and action plan to address any disparities.
3. Conducting a two-year on review to assess progress made by employers.
4. Providing further guidance on the data categorisation.
Dr Shabna Begum, interim co-chief executive of the Runnymede Trust said: “Mandatory ethnicity pay reporting should no longer be an issue for debate.
“The Government needs to catch-up with the shift in the business community, where the conversation is no longer about the merits of reporting, but instead revolves around to maximise the benefits of reporting.
“The avoidance of statutory measures has relied on this idea that ethnicity pay gap reporting is a ‘burden’, and yet our research shows the real burden is the absence of consistency and guidance – this can only come from the Government.
“The UK’s labour market remains riddled with racialised pay gaps.
“Ethnicity pay gap reporting and, crucially, the related action plans that it necessitates, are a vital first step to disrupt and diminish the barriers faced by the UK’s ethnic minority workforce.”
Senior campaigns officer at ShareAction, Kohinoor Choudhury said: “The evidence is clear – there is a structural wage differential in far too many companies.
“Not only is this is bad for those who suffer from it, it is bad for our economy.
“Only 18 out of the FTSE 100 companies presently volunteer to report their pay gap. Mandatory transparency is the only way to begin to fix this.”
*The Runnymede Trust is an independent race equality think tank in the UK.
*ShareAction is a registered charity working globally which defines standards for responsible investment.
Subscribe for our weekly news letter here!
You can unsubscribe us at any time
