Racial inequality is a factor in the gender pay gap in the United Kingdom, with some minority ethnic groups making progress while pay for others lags far behind, according to an analysis from the Fawcett Society.

The analysis of the gender pay gap by ethnicity, charts progress over more than 25 years. According to the report, Black African women have seen virtually no progress since the 1990s in closing the gender pay gap with White British men, with a full-time pay gap of 21.4% in the 1990s and 19.6% today. When part-time workers are included this figure rises to 24%.

 “This analysis reveals a complex picture of gender pay gap inequality,” Sam Smethers, Chief Executive of the Fawcett Society said. “Black African women have been largely left behind, and in terms of closing the pay gap, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women are today only where White British women were in the 1990s. For these groups this is a story of low labour market participation and low pay when they are in work together with high levels of unpaid caring work.”

Meanwhile, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women experience the largest aggregate (i.e. including full-time and part-time workers) gender pay gap at 26.2%. Indian women experience the biggest pay gap with men in their ethnic group at 16.1%.

White British women have a larger pay gap than Black Caribbean women, Indian women or those who identify as ‘White Other’. Women who identify as ‘White Other’ are the only group who have seen their pay gap widen since the 1990s from 3.5% to 14% today. However, this is largely because the composition of this group has changed over time and is today largely comprised of Central and Eastern European migrant women, many of whom are in low paid work.

The data also shows that there is a reverse gender pay gap among other ethnic groups. Black Caribbean women in full-time work have overtaken Black Caribbean men so that they now have a reverse pay gap of -8.8%. 

Chinese women have reversed their pay gap since the 1990s. Those in full-time work now earn more per hour than White British men (a reverse gap of -5.6%), but the gap between Chinese men and women has widened from 4.6% in 2000s, to 11.6% in 2010s.

White Irish women have seen the most progress since the 1990s, overtaking White Irish men and White British men and now have a sizeable -17.5% full-time pay gap. But this is largely due to generational factors as they are more likely to be older, working full-time or in senior or managerial roles.

“For women in some ethnic groups a combination of higher education, concentration in better paid professions and more women working full-time has seen their gender pay gap narrow or even reverse when compared with White British men,” Smethers said. “However, when compared with men of their own ethnicity the pay gap has either widened over time (Chinese women) or narrowed at a much slower rate (Indian women), indicating that they are still experiencing gender inequality.

“The exception to this is Black Caribbean men who are faring considerably worse in the labour market both in terms of pay and participation than Black Caribbean women,” Smethers said. “However, Black Caribbean women still experience discrimination.”

“We have to address pay inequality for all, and look behind the headline figures to get a true picture of what is going on,” Smethers said. “We also have to understand and address the combined impact of race and gender inequality. As a minimum the Office of National Statistics should routinely collect and publish this data.”