Low pay by ethnicity
Key points
- Over one-third of Bangladeshi and Pakistani employees are low-paid.
- There is more difference between ethnic groups for low pay than for unemployment.
Employees in London in low-paid work by ethnicity
What does this graph show?
Over one-third of Bangladeshi and Pakistani employees are paid less than the London Living Wage. This is a higher proportion than any other ethnic group, and over twice as high as White British employees.
There is more of a gradient - that is, a difference between groups - for low pay than there was for unemployment. For instance, the unemployment rate among people from Indian backgrounds was almost the same as those from White British backgrounds. For low pay, there is a more significant difference.
Data used
Labour Force Survey, ONS, data is average for 2008 to 2010
Indicator last updated: 30 January 2012
Topic:
Groups:
Boroughs:
- Barking and Dagenham
- Barnet
- Bexley
- Brent
- Bromley
- Camden
- City of London
- Croydon
- Ealing
- Enfield
- Greenwich
- Hackney
- Hammersmith and Fulham
- Haringey
- Harrow
- Havering
- Hillingdon
- Hounslow
- Islington
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Kingston upon Thames
- Lambeth
- Lewisham
- Merton
- Newham
- Redbridge
- Richmond upon Thames
- Southwark
- Sutton
- Tower Hamlets
- Waltham Forest
- Wandsworth
- Westminster
Case Study
Case study: Daryl
Daryl, a British citizen aged 53, spent most of his life in the USA. He returned to the UK in 2006 after a divorce. He worked as a truck driver in the USA and ran a cleaning business. When I...More…
Glossary
Official ethnic classifications:
The current official classification – used in the census and in many of the official datasets used in this research – is based on the following 16-way division:
- White, comprising White British, White Irish, and White Other
- Asian or Asian British, comprising Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Other Asian
- Black or Black British, comprising, Black Caribbean, Black African, and Black Other
- Chinese, and Other
- Mixed, comprising White and Black Caribbean, White and Black African, White and Asian, and Any Other Mixed
In some of the low income analysis, White British and White Other are grouped together to enable comparisons over time, as the White Other group was only introduced in the relevant dataset in 2001. In some datasets, White Irish are included as White Other. ONS estimate that White Irish make up around one fifth of this larger White Other group.
Moreover, these definitions assign an ethnicity to the household, rather than the individuals in the household, based on the ethnicity of the head of the household.
The 'Other' and 'Mixed' groups are not analysed either collectively or separately on grounds of sample reliability. Given the diversity within the groups, we do not present an analysis of, for instance, All Other, or All Mixed.
Ethnicity:
characteristics of a group with distinctive cultural, linguistic and/or religious ties