UK Employees Call for Action over Wage Disparity: Widespread Backing for Mandatory Reporting of Disability and Ethnicity Pay Gaps
The UK government is moving towards more comprehensive equality and pay transparency legislation, focusing on race and disability, as indicated by recent developments.
The anticipated Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, scheduled for publication in 2025, is expected to include mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. This legislation aims to strengthen equal pay enforcement and transparency beyond current gender pay gap obligations.
The Bill and associated reforms are anticipated to take effect no earlier than 2027, giving employers time to prepare. However, less than half of employers currently calculate these pay gaps, acknowledging the need for significant preparation. Guidance suggests aligning new reporting frameworks with the existing gender pay gap model to ease implementation while recognizing the unique challenges related to ethnicity and disability data.
A survey of 2,000 working professionals across the UK reveals overwhelming public support for mandatory reporting on both disability and ethnicity pay gaps. Nearly eight in ten (78%) believe employers should have to compare the pay of employees performing work of equal value, and almost three-quarters (73%) want tougher legal requirements for employers to publish pay information and take corrective action when pay gaps emerge.
The lack of salary range information in job advertisements is deterring workers from applying, with an average of two times in the last year that workers have not applied due to this reason. Over three-quarters (77%) of the surveyed workers support compulsory disability pay gap disclosure, and seven in ten (70%) back ethnicity pay gap reporting.
People Like Us, a campaign group, has launched 'Britain's Ethnicity Bill' to hold the UK government accountable for introducing mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. The group emphasizes the need for the government to move quickly with the bill to create a fairer workplace environment for all.
The campaign also aims to highlight the £3.2bn bill owed to Britain's ethnic minority workers due to lost annual earnings caused by the ethnicity pay gap. Research from the Resolution Foundation reveals ethnically diverse workers are missing out collectively on £3.2bn annually due to pay gaps.
Moreover, the survey shows that pay secrecy is widely seen as perpetuating discrimination, and over two-thirds (69%) suspect that pay secrecy is directly fueling inequality in the workplace. For those applying for jobs, 56% have been dissuaded by the absence of salary range information.
Tom Heys, pay gap expert at Lewis Silkin, states that the polling shows that transparency matters and that employers want certainty and support to move from intention to action on ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. James Taylor, strategy director at disability equality charity Scope, stresses that the findings indicate a strong desire for transparency on pay among disabled workers, and that the rest of the country agrees with them.
People Like Us and Scope are advocating for the EU Pay Transparency Directive as a potential future policy area. This directive requires employers to publish salary ranges, bans them from asking about salary history, and gives employees the right to know the pay of others doing similar work.
It is worth noting that Black, Mixed Descent, and disabled workers are significantly more likely to report relying more on public services due to current pay levels and job security compared to White workers.
In summary, the UK is progressing towards more comprehensive equality and pay transparency legislation focused on race and disability. The anticipated Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, scheduled for publication in 2025, is expected to include mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting. The Bill and associated reforms aim to strengthen equal pay enforcement and transparency beyond current gender pay gap obligations.
- The upcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, slated for release in 2025, will likely incorporate mandatory reporting of ethnicity and disability pay gaps in British businesses, following the trend towards increased financial transparency and equal opportunities.
- As public support grows for incorporating ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting into business practices, advocacy groups like People Like Us and Scope are actively pushing for the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which could provide a future policy framework for enforcing pay transparency and equal opportunities in the UK.
