Pay gap widens as calls for mandatory data disclosure grow

A PROFESSIONAL body has reported a rise in the ethnicity pay gap, even as calls are growing for making wage disparity data mandatory for employers.

The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) said the mean pay gap between white British workers and ethnic minority groups went up to 24.9 per cent in 2021 from 23.2 per cent a year ago.

In its latest report, the London-headquartered AAT said the median pay disparity also increased from 21.8 per cent in 2020 to 23.9 this year. The report comes ahead of a parliamentary debate on whether it should be made mandatory for employers to disclose ethnicity pay gap data.

Only 13 of the UK’s top 100 companies have come out with pay disparity data, prompting calls for bringing in legal obligations to make disclosures on earnings differentials.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said mandatory reporting of data would help create fairer workplaces.

“Mandatory reporting .. helps kick-start real change”, he told The Times.

While employers with more than 250 workers must legally make gender pay gap data public, there is no such legislation on pay differentials between white British workers and their colleagues from ethnic minority groups.