Hackney Town Hall. Pic: Wikimedia Commons.

Black and Global Majority employees earn less than white employees in Hackney Council although woman employees on average earn more than men, according to the Council’s latest pay equality report

In 2023, Black and Global Majority employees had a mean hourly rate of £20.53, compared to £23.86 for white employees, meaning that BAGM employees earned on average £3.33 less per hour. 

This is due to BAGM employees being more likely to have roles that pay lower. The lowest-paying quartile of jobs in the council consists of 68.1 per cent BAGM employees, whereas 60.71 per cent of the jobs in the highest-paying quartile are held by white people. 

Councillor Carole Williams, Cabinet Member for Employment, Human Resources and Equalities said: “While this gap has decreased for the third consecutive year, indicating that we are moving in the right direction, there is an acknowledgement that more needs to be done. 

We choose to publish the ethnicity pay gap when there is no legal requirement to do so, emphasising the council’s commitment to confronting this challenge head on and by openly challenging ourselves to address the issues we aim to change.”

For the last three years, the ethnicity pay gap in Hackney Council has decreased marginally, from 15.09 per cent in 2021 to 13.95 per cent in 2023.

Whereas men earn more on average than women do in most London boroughs, the gender pay gap is reversed in Hackney Council. 

Women’s average hourly rate in 2023 was £22.12, which is 3.87 per cent higher than men’s hourly rate of £21.29. 

Data from 2022 showed that women on average earned 4.2 per cent less than men in local governments, and 13.9 per cent less than men in the U.K. in general. 

In Hackney, the pay gap increased in favour of women last year, rising by 2.89 percentage points from 0.98 per cent.

Williams said: “While this can be in part attributed to the increasing number of men in lower paid roles, additionally, the last year has seen more women assuming senior positions at the council.

This includes our interim Chief Executive Dawn Carter-McDonald, and Hackney’s first woman directly elected Mayor, Caroline Woodley. Having diversity at the very top of the organisation is vital in showcasing potential career paths for young people and more junior colleagues.”

In their equality pay report, the Council wrote: “While our mean gender pay gap continues to grow in favour of women, we cannot become complacent as the difference could easily be reversed.”