'Black graduates paid less per hour than white people,' says trade union

TUC suggested there was a 23% gap in hourly pay between black and white university graduates Chris Radburn/PA Wire
PA
Michael Clarke1 February 2016

Recently graduated black workers are paid up to a quarter less per hour than their white counterparts, according to a report.

Research by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) revealed there was a 23 per cent gap in hourly pay on average between black and white university graduates.

The pay gap fell to 14 per cent for those with A-levels and 11 per cent for people with GCSEs.

It comes after David Cameron criticised Oxford and Cambridge universities over inequality in the number of ethnic minority students they took on.

The TUC analysed figures from the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey and found black workers with a degree were paid £4.30 per hour less on average than white graduates.

TUC general Secretary Frances O'Grady told the Independent: "These are very worrying findings. Black and Asian people face a massive pay gap, even if they have a degree.

"This is not about education, but about the systemic disadvantages ethnic minority workers face in the UK."

The union called on the Government to tackle pay 'discrimination'.

At the weekend, the Prime Minister warned educational institutions, the police, the military and the courts they were all the focus of a new effort to tackle social inequality, suggesting it might be fuelled by "ingrained, institutional and insidious" racism.

He highlighted Oxford University, where he said there were only 27 black students out of more than 2,500 accepted there in 2014.

Oxford University defended itself, saying it had "shown progress against a challenging backdrop of changes to the educational landscape and student funding".

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in