In recent years, pressure has mounted on the government to mandate ethnic pay gap reporting for large employers, mirroring the existing requirements for gender pay reporting. Supporters argue that publishing wage disparities by ethnicity forces companies to actively confront systemic inequalities in recruitment and promotion. Business advocacy groups, however, caution that raw pay data can be misleading because it fails to capture geographical variations in population demographics or specific educational differences, potentially penalising firms unfairly.
Aside from transparency mandates, trade unions suggest that targeted collective bargaining and stronger protections against discrimination at work are essential to closing the gap. Other policy proposals include introducing mandatory diversity targets or quotas for executive boards, similar to voluntary initiatives aimed at increasing ethnic minority representation in leadership. The government recognises the need to improve career progression and mentorship opportunities for ethnic minority employees, investing in early-career apprenticeships and professional networking programs to overcome entry barriers into high-paying industries.
Extract C notes that 'The government recognises the need to improve career progression and mentorship opportunities for ethnic minority employees.'
Use the extract and your knowledge of economics to evaluate the policies that a government might use to reduce the ethnic pay gap.
64 exam-style questions on AQA A Level Economics 1.6 The labour market (A-level only), covering 1.6.1 The demand for labour, marginal productivity theory, 1.6.2 Influences upon the supply of labour to different markets, 1.6.3 The determination of relative wage rates and levels of employment in perfectly competitive labour markets, 1.6.4 The determination of relative wage rates and levels of employment in imperfectly competitive labour markets, 1.6.5 The Influence of trade unions in determining wages and levels of employment, 1.6.6 The National Minimum Wage, and 1.6.7 Discrimination in the labour market. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.