Insurance organisation Zurich UK has reported a mean ethnicity pay gap of 9.8% for average hourly pay as at July 2020.
This represents a two percentage point increase in average hourly pay for ethnic minorities within the organisation since it reported a gap of 11.8% in 2019.
However, its bonus pay gap currently stands at 24.5%, increasing by 7.8 percentage points from 16.7% in 2019.
Ethnicity pay gap reporting is not currently mandatory in the UK, however, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has requested compulsory reporting on ethnic minority pay, recruitment, retention and promotion. Zurich UK has committed to publishing its data, currently showing that 7% of its UK employees are part of an ethnic minority group, based on 86% of employees volunteering this information.
To decrease the pay gap, Zurich UK is launching a programme to tackle inequality in pay and encourage career progression for ethnic minority employees within the organisation. Using data collated through the programme, the organisation will also look to attract and recruit ethnic minority staff.
Tulsi Naidu, chief executive at Zurich UK, said: “We have led the way with various campaigns to create a more inclusive work environment taking a number of progressive measures within our business and leading on initiatives such as the Inclusive Behaviours in Insurance pledge signed by over 130 major players in the industry. We are listening to our employees from diverse and ethnic minority backgrounds, and their experiences will help inform any action we take.
“Our data shows that we have more work to do to appoint more diverse candidates to our business and to better support them in their careers. We are committed to doing everything we can to understand how we can progress meaningful change, which is why we fully support the mandatory reporting of this data in the same way as we do for gender. Organisations now need practical guidance and a clear framework on how best to do this to tackle race inequality in the workplace, and we look forward to support from the government and EHRC to help us deliver.”