So-called “ethnic pay gap” data has shown that young people from ethnic minorities are actually earning more than young white Britons.
Official Office for National Statistics (ONS) data showed that so-called BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic, equivalent to the American ‘POC’) young people aged 16 to 29 tend to be paid more than their white counterparts, dealing something of a blow to left-wing claims that society is rigged against minorities.
The ONS data did find that BAME people aged 30 and over earn slightly less, on average, than white over-30s, but the gap across the board is at its smallest since records began, according to The Telegraph, at £12.40 per hour for whites and £12.11 across 17 ethnic minority groups.
The newspaper also concedes that this small disparity does not exist across the board, either, with 2012-2019 data showing white Britons outearning people of African, Arab, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani extraction, on average, but behind people of Chinese, Indian, and “Mixed or Multiple ethnic” extraction, as well as white Irish — suggesting that “systemic racism” may not be responsible for perceived income disparities after all.
“We would welcome any data that shows the pay disparity gap is closing. Obviously, it is clear that there are factors at play, including socio-economic, that mean some groups are still being paid less than others for equal work,” commented Dr Halima Begum, director of the left-liberal Runnymede Trust.
She then went on to assert, however, that there “clearly isn’t a level playing field for all BAME groups” and that “we have to start asking ourselves if invisible factors are at play, like unconscious biases and sometimes very conscious biases, including Islamophobia. These sorts of biases are extremely difficult to measure and certainly are not reflected in the ONS data.”
Why so-called “unconscious biases” against minorities would hold down people of African or Pakistani origin but allow people of Chinese or Indian origin to rise above the native population was not explained.
“We cannot ignore the historical iniquity faced by minority communities,” Begum insisted — apparently failing to consider any reasons why one ethnic group might have somewhat poorer average economic outcomes than another besides some form of repression by society at large.