Responsible investment NGO ShareAction has launched a campaign for UK FTSE 100 financial companies to disclose their ethnicity pay gap. Currently, none of the financial firms are reporting their ethnicity pay gap in line with UK Office of National Statistics recommendations. ShareAction noted a “vast discrepancy” in pay between white British and ethnic minority workers, with young black minority and ethnic (BME) workers in the UK 47% more likely to be employed on a zero-hour contract than white workers in the same age range. Further, the unemployment rate of BME workers is more than twice as high as that of white workers. ShareAction’s campaign calls on companies with no ethnicity pay gap reporting procedures in place to begin making disclosures, and that those currently reporting improve the standard of transparency. So far, the NGO has asked 16 questions related to the ethnicity pay gap at company AGMs this season, with 15 companies agreeing to follow up meetings, and three – Schroders, Abrdn and Hiscox – committing to publish their ethnicity pay gap once their disclosure rate has increased. Catherine Howarth, ShareAction’s CEO said: “Companies across the economy have begun reporting their ethnicity pay data. However, so far, this is still a tiny fraction of FTSE 100 companies. We know that solutions are available so long as employers are committed to action and change.”
