Addressing racial inequality in the workplace

The ethnicity pay gap is the difference in average pay between employees from minority ethnic employees and white employees.

The employment gap is the difference in the employment rate of working adults from minority ethnic groups and white groups.

Racialised minorities face many barriers in finding work, staying in work and progressing. They also face discrimination in recruitment practices. People from racialised minorities:

• with non-British names need to send 60% more applications to get as many callbacks as those with British names
• may be selected for interview, but numbers drop significantly when it comes to appointments
• tend to have better educational qualifications than white job applicants, but this is not reflected in employment outcomes
• are more likely to be over-represented in low-paid or entry-level roles
• are under-represented at senior levels
• are more likely to experience bullying and harassment in the workplace
• receive less favourable performance review marks than white staff

We see these barriers in the persistent ethnicity pay and employment rate gaps in the UK.

How a more diverse workforce benefits your organisation

Employers can miss out on a wide range of available talent and skills due to the ethnicity pay and employment rate gaps. If you diversify your workforce, it means the best person for the role gets the job.

Find out more about the benefits of a diverse, equal and inclusive workplace.

Your responsibilities as an employer

The Scottish Government encourages employers to go beyond statutory requirements to ensure everyone can find work, progress and thrive fairly.

Find out more about Fair Work and how to become a Fair Work employer.

Legal requirements

Employers have a legal responsibility to prevent discrimination against protected characteristic groups in the workplace under the Equality Act 2010. This includes racialised minorities.

Find out more about race discrimination and the Equality Act through the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Find out more about types of discrimination on GOV.UK.

Actions you can take to address racial inequality

You can help remove workplace barriers for racialised minorities, including:

• improving ethnicity data collection to identify issues for action – for example, addressing the lack of under-represented groups between interview and appointment, or poorer retention rates for racialised minority employees in senior roles
• having feedback channels where workers from minority ethnic backgrounds can safely raise concerns
• anonymised sifts – this involves removing the candidates’ names and personal information when checking applications to ensure people are judged on merit
• diverse recruitment panels
• inclusive communication – such as targeted promotion of opportunities to local communities or trusted organisations
• practising positive action recommendations from the EHRC to improve the representation of racialised minorities

Employer resources

Use the minority ethnic recruitment toolkit on gov.scot to improve the diversity of your workforce by recruiting more people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Explore the annexes of the anti-racist employment strategy on gov.scot for a range of good practice examples on addressing racial inequality in the workplace.

Read a guide to race inclusion in the workplace on the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) website.

Explore a guide to positive action from Skills Development Scotland.

Read 'Guidance for employers on taking an anti-racist approach to tackling women’s workplace inequality' from Close the Gap