Indian and Chinese Earn More than Their British Counterparts Says a UK Report
The statistics show Chinese workers earned an average of £15.75 per hour in the year 2018, which is closely followed by Indian workers who earned an average of £13.47 per hour.
In the UK, Indian and Chinese workers earn more than their British counterparts by almost £10,000 a year, according to the first government ethnic pay gap data, released recently. The data compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been derived from 2012 to 2018 and it has found Chinese and Indian workers consistently had the highest median hourly pay.
The statistics show Chinese workers earned an average of £15.75 per hour in the year 2018, which is closely followed by Indian workers who earned an average of £13.47 per hour. While in contrast, British workers earned an average of £12.03 per hour.
The employees working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, enable Chinese workers to earn almost £10,000 a year (with an annual salary of around £33,000) which is again more than their British counterparts (who would earn around £25,000). Meanwhile, Indian workers earn around £28,000 a year based on the annual salary calculation.
Employment lawyer, Jahad Rahman, observes that the figures in the study also reveal that Chinese and Indian workers have excelled in the education system and therefore earn higher wages after graduating. As Rahman said, “The figures are interesting. Whilst the data reveals that Chinese and Isalaryndians are doing well, the reality is that class and race still appear to be obstacles to progression within the workplace”.
He also adds, “It is also very difficult to say with certainty but it is likely that both Chinese and Indian workers in the sample taken during the survey are graduates and have excelled within the education system, in comparison to other groups. Training on diversity at work and ethnicity pay gap reporting for large institutions, which should hopefully help tackle the obvious pay inequality and disparity”.
The ONS report, which is titled, “Ethnicity pay gaps in Great Britain: 2018”, also presents the first analysis of ethnicity pay gaps using newly reweighted earnings data from the Annual Population Survey.
According to Resolution Foundation, almost all black and ethnic minority (BAME) groups of workers face pay penalties in the workplace, despite huge labour market progress in recent decades. Resolution Foundation is a think tank, which aims to improve the standard of living for low and middle-income families.
Kathleen Henehan, associated with Resolution Foundation, says “Black and ethnic minority workers have made huge strides over recent decades in terms of educational attainment and rising employment. But despite this, almost all the BAME groups continue to face significant pay gaps, compared to the white workers”.
She also adds, “Having made significant progress on shining a light on gender pay gaps within firms though equal pay audits, the government should now extend this to look at pay gaps for BAME workers too.”
The Foundation also noted that Britain’s 1.9 million black, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi employees are experiencing an annual pay penalty of £3.2bn. The ONS data shows that almost all BAME groups face significant pay penalties, with an exception to the UK-born Chinese workers.