Chinese, Indian ethnic group workers earn more than white British

INDIAN and Chinese ethnic group workers have higher average earnings than their white British counterparts in the UK, a latest official report said on Monday (9).

However, the figures on the ethnicity pay gap from the Office for National Statistics (ONS)showed that all the other ethnic groups have lower wages than the white British employees.

In 2018, on average, employees from the Chinese ethnic group earned 30.9 per cent more than white British staff; while employees from the Bangladeshi ethnic group earned 20.2 per cent less than white British workers.

The new analysis shows that employees of Chinese, Indian and mixed or multiple ethnicity all had higher median hourly pay than white British employees in 2018.

There were three ethnic groups which were shown to have a higher median hourly pay than white British in 2018. These being Chinese, Indian and mixed or multiple ethnic groups with hourly earnings of £15.75, £13.47 and £12.33 respectively, in comparison to white British whose median pay was £12.03.

The ethnic group that had the lowest median hourly pay in 2018 was Bangladeshi at £9.60 followed by Pakistani at £10.

The existing pay gap between white British and other ethnic groups is generally smaller for younger employees than it is for older employees, ONS noted.

Employees refer to everyone employed in Great Britain between the ages of 16 and 64 years.

On average, ethnic minorities earn 3.8 per cent less than white ethnic groups.

The ethnic group with the highest employment rate in 2018 is ‘white other’ at 81.7 per cent. The white British and Indian ethnic groups follow white other with employment rates of 76.4 per cent and 75.9 per cent respectively.

The two ethnic groups with the lowest employment rates are Pakistani and Bangladeshi, with employment rates of 58.2 per cent and 54.9 per cent respectively.