The Royal College of Psychiatrists can today announce that its ethnicity pay gap – the difference in pay between White staff and those who are Black, Asian and minority ethnic – is just 6.57%.
The College’s narrow ethnicity pay gap – as measured by the median average – is very similar to its narrow gender pay gap.
Whereas with the College’s gender pay gap it is men who, on average, are paid 6.22% more than women, with the ethnicity pay gap it is Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff who, on average, are paid 6.57% more than White staff.
The national average gender pay gap is 15.5%. The average ethnicity pay gap in London, in 2019, was 23.8%.
The College’s mean pay gaps are similarly narrow – with men being paid on average 4.86% more than women – and Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff being paid on average 4.12% more than White staff.
The existence of a pay gap at an organisation does not mean that the employer is paying men or Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff more for the exact same work than women or people who are White. That would be illegal.
Instead, the pay gap figures show what the average male and average Black, Asian and minority ethnic members of staff at an organisation are paid compared to the average female and White members of staff.
The total number of substantive employees and workers in post with the RCPsych on the date of the snapshot research for the ethnicity pay audit – on 4 February 2021 – was 378.
Overall, 20% of our staff – both employees and patient and carer workers – are Black, Asian and minority ethnic.
This is substantially higher than the national proportion of people who are Black, Asian and minority ethnic, across the four nations of the UK at large, where 14% of people are from ethnic minorities.
There is one caveat around our ethnicity pay figures – and that is that 17% of staff (63 people) have not disclosed their ethnicity.
This means the statistics are not fully robust – and if just a handful of people, currently not included, were added into the equation the results could change by some margin.
In addition, we would expect both the ethnicity and gender pay gaps to fluctuate over time as people join or leave the organisation, or get promotions.
The College’s ethnicity pay audit also showed that:
- In the top pay quartile – 18% of staff are Black, Asian and minority ethnic; 68% of staff are White, and 14% of staff have not disclosed their ethnicity
- In the upper-middle pay quartile – 28% of staff are Black, Asian and minority ethnic; 60% of staff are White, and 13% of staff have not disclosed their ethnicity
- In the lower-middle pay quartile – 14% of staff are Black, Asian and minority ethnic; 47% of staff are White, and 14% of staff have not disclosed their ethnicity
- In the lower pay quartile – 20% of staff are Black, Asian and minority ethnic; 79% of staff are White, and 1% of staff have not disclosed their ethnicity.
While many organisations are reluctant to carry out ethnicity pay audits, the RCPsych believes that conducting ethnicity pay reporting is consistent with its organisational values of Courage, Innovation, Respect, Collaboration, Excellence and Learning.
RCPsych Chief Executive Paul Rees MBE said:
“We are delighted that our ethnicity pay gap is exceptionally narrow, as is the case with our gender pay gap.
“We believe that this shows that our recruitment and promotion processes are as free from bias as is humanly possible.
“As an organisation, we ensure that promoting equality, diversity and inclusion is an organisational priority – and over the last 12 months we have delivered almost 400 actions to promote this agenda and ensure fairness across the organisation.
“However, we will never rest on our laurels and will continue to promote equality, diversity and inclusion – and a values-based approach – to ensure that everyone is treated with respect regardless of their characteristics or background.
“We will also encourage as many staff as possible to disclose all their protected characteristics so that we can effectively track how we are doing across the board in terms of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion.”