Keir Starmer’s government has been accused of delaying
action on the ethnic minority pay gap over fears of a backlash from Reform UK.
The Ethnicity Pay Gap Steering Committee has sent a harsh
letter questioning why it has taken the government six months to propose
legislation requiring large businesses to report on the issue, as was promised
after a review.
The committee blasted the delay in a letter to Seema
Malhotra, the minister of equalities, and implied that the main cause of the
problem was fear of political backlash from the right.
Norreen Biddle Shah, founder of the think tank Reboot, who wrote the letter on behalf of the committee, said:
“My view is that it is reasonable to ask whether the lack of movement on long-awaited legislation is being shaped by concern about political pushback, particularly at a time when the rhetoric around race has become more charged and the popularity of Reform has grown.
But our research shows something very clear: despite heightened social tension, the public still overwhelmingly supports transparency and fairness at work.”
Her remarks coincide with a More in Common poll showing a
three-point increase in support for Reform to 31%, ahead of the Tories at 23%
and Labour at just 19%.
Calling for an explanation on the delay in legislation, Ms Biddle Shah wrote:
“The King’s speech was in July 2024 and the consultation ended in June 2025. We expected clarity by late 2025. The longer the government says nothing, the harder it becomes to explain why.”
The issue has been linked to economic growth. Sandra Kerr, director of race equality at Business in the Community, has previously noted that closing ethnic pay gaps could increase the UK GDP by £37 billion annually, and that requiring wage reporting would guarantee that workers feel
"valued, respected, and treated fairly at work."
In an effort to raise awareness of the ongoing pay envelope
difference endured by ethnic nonage workers, the letter was issued on Ethnicity
Pay Gap Day. For Ms. Malhotra, who'll be the keynote speaker at the Ethnicity
Pay Gap Summit in February, it's an embarrassment.
Dianne Greyson launched the race Pay Gap crusade, which has
been prompting lawmakers and companies to address the lack of openness girding
ethnical pay injuries, which still affect numerous workers entering much lower
than their white counterparts.
In discrepancy to gender pay gap reporting, race pay gap
reporting is still voluntary in the UK, despite growing substantiation of
structural difference in occasion, advancement, and compensation, and calls
from activists to make it obligatory.
Multitudinous studies show that, indeed after taking
senility and part into consideration, workers from Black, Asian, and nonage
ethnic backgrounds are generally paid lower than white workers in colorful
diligence. contenders contend that associations warrant the provocation and
responsibility to address the issue in the absence of obligatory
reporting.
What did Nigel Farage or Reform UK say about ethnicity reporting?
Nigel Farage and Reform UK have blamed obligatory race pay
gap reporting as part of a broader"anti-woke" and" divisive
grievance culture" docket. Farage specifically ingrained similar
measures" divisive," arguing they energy ethnical pressures rather
than promote concinnity, amid Labour's detainments on legislation.
Reform UK positions race pay exposures as ineffective"
box- ticking" that alienates white working- class choosers, echoing
Farage's TalkTV rhetoric onover-representation of nonages in media and DEI
enterprise.
Party spokespeople, including deputy Richard Tice, frame voluntary reporting as sufficient, advising obligatory rules burden SMEs without closing gaps citing ONS data showing patient 9- 13 difference despite gender reporting successes.