UK Companies Will Have To Report Their Ethnicity And Disability Pay Gaps
The UK government has announced plans to introduce legislation requiring companies with 250 or more employees to disclose their ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
This move, part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s agenda for the upcoming year, was unveiled by King Charles III and signals a significant shift towards greater workplace equality.
Extending Equal Pay Rights
The proposed race and disability equality bill will, for the first time, mandate British businesses to report on the pay disparities affecting ethnic minority and disabled workers.
Previously, companies were only required to report gender pay gaps.
The new legislation aligns the treatment of pay claims from ethnic minorities and disabled workers with those of women, who are currently protected under existing equal pay laws.
The Current Pay Disparity Landscape
According to the Office for National Statistics, Black, African, Caribbean, or Black British employees earned 5.6% less than their white counterparts in 2022.
Similarly, disabled employees faced a median pay gap exceeding 10% compared to non-disabled employees.
These figures highlight persistent inequalities that the new bill aims to address.
Despite some skepticism about the effectiveness of such measures—evidenced by the mixed results of gender pay gap reporting since its introduction in 2017—the push for transparency in ethnicity and disability pay is a bold move.
Feature Image Credit: Data Science Campus
