West Yorkshire to publish ethnicity pay report to tackle disparity, says mayor

WEST YORKSHIRE Combined Authority will publish an ethnicity pay report for the first time, the Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin announced on Friday (13) after recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) highlighted how most of the minority ethnic groups in Britain continue to earn less than their white counterparts.

“I am so proud to be following in the footsteps of my Labour colleagues across the United Kingdom by committing to ethnicity pay gap reporting today,” Brabin said, adding that a lot needs to be done to end workplace inequalities for “Black, Asian and ethnic minority people who have faced the worst economic impacts of the pandemic”.

She also said that soon after joining the office, she started working towards race equality by appointing the “fantastic Alison Lowe as the first Black female Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime” and “pledging to appoint an Inclusivity Champion to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are central to all that we do”.

The announcement comes after it was reported that local authorities across London, Bristol and, at the Senedd in Wales, have begun publishing ethnicity pay reports after ONS’ highlights regarding pay disparity.

Reacting to West Yorkshire’s announcement, Marsha de Cordova, the Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, said that pay gap reporting is “the best way to flush out pay inequality in our society, which continues to be a huge barrier to equality for Black, Asian and ethnic minority people”.

“As we emerge from a pandemic which has disproportionately impacted Black, Asian and ethnic minority people, we need action to end persistent injustices,” Cordova said, adding that the “next Labour government will introduce a Race Equality Act to tackle structural and institutional racism root and branch”. 

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (ECHR), Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Trades Union Congress (TUC) and, most recently, Theresa May’s former race adviser Lord Simon Wooley, have all joined calls for reporting to be put in place to help end racial inequality in the workplace, reports said.

Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer, a report by consultancy firm WorkL found that racial disparity in pay is entrenched between white and non-white workers, with the former significantly happier at work during the pandemic than the latter, reports said.