by
Ryan Clement
RECENTLY, I had the pleasure of chatting to Dianne Greyson of #EthnicityPayGap who has been championing the cause of highlighting and addressing pay gap due to workers’ ethnicity. Dianne spoke about her work and some of the challenges she faces. We also spoke about Colourism, which is a term I first encountered many years ago through one of my favourite authors, Alice Walker. As a barrister who specialises in employment law, I identified a potential problem in the area of direct discrimination because of race where a claimant needs to have a comparator. The statutory definition of ‘race’ includes— (a) colour; (b) nationality; (c) ethnic or national origins. If a claimant relies on colour on the basis of colourism, arguing, for example, that they were treated less favourably than a person of the same race in respect of colour under the Equality Act 2010 but of a different complexion, which, in essence, is basis of colourism, then it would be interesting to see whether the courts would accept the claimant’s comparator as being a correct one.
The ONS (Office for National Statistics) reported, amongst other things, that in the UK in 2022:
- Black, African, Caribbean or Black British employees earned less (£13.53) median gross hourly pay than White employees (£14.35), which has been consistent since 2012.
- Country of birth had an impact on how much employees earned: UK-born Black, African, Caribbean or Black British employees earned more (£15.18), while non-UK-born Black British employees earned less (£12.95) when compared with UK-born White employees (£14.26).
- After holding personal and work characteristics constant, to provide an adjusted pay gap based on a like-for-like comparison, we find that UK-born White employees earn more on average than most ethnic minority employees.
- When adjusting for pay-determining characteristics, we see the pay gap narrow and in some instances reverse: for example UK-born Black, African, Caribbean or Black British employees, move from earning 6.5% more to earning 5.6% less compared with White employees.
- When looking at the cumulative effect of pay-determining characteristics, the factors that had the greatest impact were occupation, qualifications, geography, age and sex.
Asked what gave her the idea to do the good work she is doing on ethnicity pay gap, Dianne said, “It was a lightbulb moment.” She was, “driving along,” and had been thinking about it and wondering, “why weren’t people addressing it?” Influenced by the #MeToo movement, she thought, “What can I do? And I literally came up with the idea.” From that she came up with #EthnicityPayGap to, “show solidarity with people who were going through it,” but that just literally spiralled into something else because she shared it on LinkedIn and suddenly people were asking, ‘where did you get this t-shirt from?’ “So I had to go and find someone to replicate what I designed. And through all that time I was starting to do more research and understanding the magnitude of the situation because obviously in the beginning you think this is not fair. But then you look into it and you think, ‘THIS REALLY ISN’T FAIR!‘”
I WAS EXTREMELY GRATEFUL to Dianne for sharing her knowledge, experience and expertise with us. It has been a pleasure having the benefit of knowing so many talented people in their respective fields of specialism, be it a Primary School Teacher, HR, Detective Constable, a Poet/Councillor/Social Worker, and an, ‘Experienced Senior HR Project People Director, CIPD qualified and Accredited Mediator, Emotional intelligence assessor, providing strategic guidance and support with extensive ED&I experience,’ who has, ‘worked within the private and public sectors at board and operational level.’
Enjoy!
Copyright © Ryan Clement 2024
Ryan Clement 