There are still “huge gaps” in pay between different ethnicities living in Britain, research from the Resolution Foundation thinktank suggests.
Minority ethnic families in the UK earn as much as £8,900 a year less than their white British counterparts, the study reveals.
Male Pakistani and Bangladeshi workers saw median pay increase by 28 per cent since 2001, compared to just one per cent for men of other ethnicities, said the report.
The think tank said the large gap in living standards between white households and those of ethnic groups in Britain was partly down to differences in female employment within the families.
In white households 72 per cent of women were employed, but in Pakistani and Bangladeshi households the rate was almost half this at 37 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
Nonetheless, the report found that the rate of female employment within these ethnic groups had increased significantly since 2001.
It found male employment for Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black men had also “increased substantially” over the same period.
Resolution Foundation senior economic analyst Adam Corlett said these “impressive employment gains” had helped their overall incomes grow at a faster rate than that of white households.
“However, we should be encouraged by the fact that there have been big improvements in some instances, such as the impressive employment gains seen among black, Bangladeshi and Pakistani men and women.
“Thanks to this and other factors, since the turn of the millennium Bangladeshi and Pakistani households have actually seen the fastest income growth.”
A typical Bangladeshi household earns £8,900 less while a Pakistani household earns £8,700 less and a typical black African family also earned £5,600 less than that of a white household.
However, the study also said Bangladeshi households experienced the fastest income growth – 38 per cent between 2001-03 and 2014-16, almost three times as fast as the 13 per cent growth seen by white households over the same period.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
