A new report which was published in a white paper from leading recruiter Robert Walters who surveyed over 7,500 professionals year-on-year between 2019-2021 has illustrated that black and minority ethnic professionals continue to be disadvantaged in their careers. The findings show that 42% of black professionals do not receive a pay increase after negotiation – double the number of white professionals. The figure is much starker for black women, where an overwhelming 63% do not receive a pay increase following salary negotiation.

When looking at this research in more detail, the figures show that when analysing those that were able to receive a pay increase, it is black professionals (21%) who have the lowest success rate of receiving 75-100% of their requested pay rise. This is a stark contrast with the experiences of white professionals (35%) who received 75-100% of their requested pay rise.

Many workers didn’t make an attempt to negotiate a pay rise as they felt that their employer not agreeing to a pay rise is a larger deterrent for black workers (37%) compared to white (23%).

Habiba Khatoon – Director at Robert Walters comments:

“This report is one of the most significant pieces of research into Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace in the past two years, and specifically highlights the failures that come from a lack of effective inclusion – where company structure, culture, and/or policies negatively impact under-represented groups.

“Whilst D&I has rightly been a prime concern for leadership teams, who now understand how critical an active D&I policy is for their organisation’s success, it remains the case that almost no protected characteristic – be it gender, sexuality, ethnicity, disability, or age – can be said to be properly represented in the workplace.

“There has indeed been positive conversations and policies introduced in the past two years to tackle the issues around representation, but this is an intersectional and complex matter – and the nuances of D&I mean that some conversations are, in some respects, still in their infancy, with considerable room for progress.

“We can all look at our numbers, but diversity & inclusion goes beyond the data points – they are complex, human issues that require a much more holistic approach. Yes, representation is important, but it is just one fraction of what companies need to be doing to improve diversity & inclusion. It’s one thing to offer under-represented groups a seat at the table, but this only works if it coincides with them having a voice.”

There has been a temporary hold on the UK governments decision to bring in mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting which has put many obstacles in the way of making an assessment of where things stand with regard to fairness in the work place and how big the ethnicity pay gap actually is. This has made it extremely difficult to come up with ways on improving the situation to come up with a satisfactory conclusion that will suit all sides.

In the March 2021 UK Commission on Race & Ethnic Disparities report, the findings revealed that the pay gap between all minorities and the white British group had shrunk by 2.3%. However according to the ONS”this simple comparison between white and ethnic minority groups does, however, mask a wide variety of experiences among different ethnic minorities” where – for example – the Pakistani/Bangladeshi group earn 16% less and the black African group 8% less than the average white British group.

The Covid 19 pandemic has meant that further obstacles have been put in the way of the career advancement of those in minority ethnic groups. It has been a polarising twelve months on issues concerning work place diversity. Active engagement in employer-led diversity initiatives has almost doubled amongst white professionals – increasing from just 11% in 2019 to 18% a year later.

Whilst 31% of white professionals state that D&I initiatives is not something that they ever intend to get involved with, this has dropped from 42% in 2019 – signalling that widespread awareness of these issues is leading to more willingness to participate in the conversation.

There still needs to be a lot of improvement with regard to diversity in the work place as many people from minority ethnic groups are being over looked for promotions when they may be more experienced than their white co-workers. This situation needs to change as it is discrimination and can lead to businesses facing court cases due to treating their workers unfairly. Everyone has to be treated equally, be given equal opportunities to do different tasks and be offered support when and where needed.