Minding the Pay Gap

Tracking pay deltas across gender, ethnicities and disabilities

Minding the Pay Gap

Gender Pay Gap

Despite continual efforts on equal pay legislations, the gender pay gap remains present across all occupations, from entry-level positions to the C-suite. According to the United Nations, across all regions, women are paid 20% less than men, with women globally earning 77 cents for every dollar men earn for work of equal value. Based on the World Economic Forum’s gender pay gap report for 2022, progress towards closing the gender gap has stalled in most countries. Only 20% of countries covered in the report stated they made progress in closing the gender gap by at least one percentage point in 2022. Based on Forbes Advisor, the legal field is the leading industry with the largest gender pay gap followed by natural resources, construction and maintenance occupations. Despite this, the US has seen the gender pay gap narrow down among young workers between the ages of 25-34.

Ethnicity Pay Gap

Within the US, on average, the Hispanic/Latin group has the highest earnings disparities, with the Black ethnic group following, earning on average, 27 and 24 cents less for every dollar their White peers earn, respectively. On the contrary, Asian-Pacific Islanders make 12 cents more than their White counterparts on average.

Looking at the UK, data indicates that the median ethnic pay gap has decreased year to year, but different ethnic groups still earn 28.8% less than their White peers. The highest pay disparities were seen within the Black ethnic group, which had a median pay gap of 33.8%, followed by Asians at 25.9%, according to the Competition & Markets Authority for 2020/2021.

	Average Weekly Earnings (US$)	Number of Workers	Earning Disparity per Dollar	Employed % of Total Workforce
Hispanic/Latino	762.80	26,849,181.82	0.73	17.26%
Black	791.01	17,781,185.32	0.76	11.43%
Native American/American Indian	801.99	1,037,819.26	0.77	0.67%
Multiracial	852.18	2,318,129.26	0.81	1.49%
White	1046.52	97,484,953.01	1.00	62.67%
Asian-Pacific Islander	1168.82	10,071,279.53	1.12	6.47%

Disability Pay Gap

Americans with disabilities earn 66 cents for every dollar a person without a disability earns. People with disabilities are less likely to be employed, with an employment rate of only 21.3% compared to 65.4% for people without a disability. Despite this low percentage, this is the highest rate on record since 2008.

Within the UK, the disability pay gap has widened slightly since 2014, with workers with a disability earning 13.8% less than those without a disability. Many suggest that updated legislation is only a fragment of the solution to the pay discrepancies, as part of the issue remains with a lack of consensus worldwide regarding the definition of a disability.

Unfortunately, in some countries such as Australia, there are loopholes for employers to employ workers with disabilities at wages as low as $2.27 an hour by utilizing wage tools to measure “productivity” of employees. Many of employers’ misconceptions include the fear that persons with a disability are only able to perform routine repetitive jobs, with low productivity and high accident rates. However, this is not true, as there is an under-tapped pool of talent of highly skilled individuals with disabilities open for work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), businesses that have hired people with disabilities reported a 90% increase in retention of valued employees and a 72% increase in employee productivity.