We contribute to the literature using high quality employer-employee payroll data on jobs, hours, and earnings, linked with the personal and family characteristics of workers from the population census for England and Wales.
We reveal substantial unexplained wage gaps disadvantaging ethnic minority groups among both women and men. These disparities occur predominantly within firms rather than between them and are especially pronounced among higher earners.
The patterns vary significantly by gender and by ethnic minority group compared to white workers. Since most of the wage disadvantage for ethnic minorities is within-firm, our results suggest that the UK’s recent legislative reforms on firm-level gender pay gap reporting should be expanded to encompass ethnicity pay gaps.