Introduce Mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting
130,567 people signed this petition to the UK Parliament after it opened on 5 March 2020; it closed on 5 September 2020. The Government responded on 30 July 2020. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 20 September 2021.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Introduce Mandatory Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting
Much like the existing mandatory requirement for employers with 250 or more employees must publish their gender pay gap. We call upon the government to introduce the ethnicity pay gap reporting. To shine a light on race / ethnicity based inequality in the workplace so that they can be addressed.
Currently there is a lack of data available in gauging the ethnicity pay gap in the workplace. Introducing these measures will allow employers to be held accountable in closing the gap where there is disparity. In order to achieve a fairer workplace publishing this data is one of the next steps to knowing how extensive the issues are from a race and ethnicity perspective and not just through the lens of gender.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 30 July 2020; the petitions site lists the Cabinet Office as responsible. Its summary:
The Government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on the introduction of mandatory Ethnicity Pay Reporting. We are currently analysing these and will respond by the end of the year.
The opening 354 words of the 556-word response:
Building a fairer economy means ensuring the UK’s organisations reflect the nation’s diversity – from factory floor to boardroom. We are committed to working closely with the business community to consider the steps that can be taken to build more inclusive workplaces, including reporting on diversity.
The Race Disparity Unit’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures website already publishes data collected by government about the different experiences of the UK’s ethnic groups at a national level. In 2018/19, the Government consulted on options for going further, exploring possibilities for employer-level ethnicity pay reporting.
Following the consultation, Government met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers to reporting and explore what information could be published to allow for meaningful action to be taken. It is essential that any reporting is reliable and robust, and that is why last year we also ran a voluntary methodology testing exercise with a broad range of businesses to better understand the complexities outlined in the consultation using real payroll data.
This work highlighted the genuine difficulties in designing a methodology that produces accurate figures that allows for interpretation and action from employers, employees and the wider public. Issues highlighted include:
• Collecting data on ethnicity/burden on businesses - a survey of 80 organisations by PwC found that concerns around the legality of collecting ethnicity data, poor response rates from employees and ensuring employee anonymity were among the most common barriers to publishing ethnicity pay data. The survey found three-quarters of organisations lack the data needed to analyse their ethnicity pay gap, while 40% had not collected data because of concerns around GDPR and other legal restrictions.
• Reporting on a binary basis – one way to mitigate low employee declaration rates is to combine all individuals from an ethnic minority background into a single group for reporting purposes. However, this approach masks the significant variations in labour market outcomes between groups. In 2018, for example, employees of Chinese, Indian and Mixed or Multiple ethnicity all had higher median hourly pay than White British employees, while employees in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups had the lowest median hourly pay.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 1,317, came from Lewisham, Deptford.
129,644 of the signatures were from the UK and 923 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Lewisham, Deptford | 1,317 |
| Camberwell and Peckham | 1,211 |
| Hackney North and Stoke Newington | 1,161 |
| Hackney South and Shoreditch | 1,135 |
| Vauxhall | 1,094 |
| Streatham | 1,048 |
| Dulwich and West Norwood | 1,026 |
| Bermondsey and Old Southwark | 1,023 |
| Islington North | 960 |
| Bristol West | 942 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 42,463 |
| South East | 17,807 |
| East of England | 10,878 |
| North West | 9,977 |
| South West | 9,005 |
| Scotland | 8,600 |
| West Midlands | 7,153 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 6,862 |
| East Midlands | 6,314 |
| Wales | 3,229 |
| North East | 2,587 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,151 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 20 September 2021. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/300105.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
275343f366c5a82c… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.