Skilled Chinese and Indian staff take home the highest salaries as new survey reveals UK’s ethnicity pay gap
- Indian workers typically make 12 per cent more than their white counterparts
- The Office for National Statistics is the first to examine earnings by ethnic group
- Bangladeshi employees on average make a fifth less than white British workers
Workers from Chinese and Indian family backgrounds are likely to earn more than white British employees, an official survey has revealed.
The analysis by the Office for National Statistics is the first to examine earnings by ethnic group and is based on large-scale national surveys.
It found that Chinese people have the highest earnings measured by self-defined ethnic group, with pay and salaries running nearly a third higher than white Britons.
Workers in a crowd (stock)
Meanwhile Indian workers typically make 12 per cent more than their white counterparts who were born in Britain largely because a high proportion have strong professional and educational qualifications.
At the bottom end of the ethnicity pay table, Bangladeshi employees on average make about a fifth less than white British workers.
The ONS added that the earnings gap between whites and other ethnic groups appears to be closing among younger people.
Black and Caribbean workers under 30 make almost the same money as white British people in the same age group.
ONS analyst Hugh Stickland said: ‘Overall, employees from certain ethnic groups such as Indian and Chinese have higher average earnings than their white British counterparts.
‘All other ethnic groups have average wages lower than for white British employees.
‘However, once characteristics such as education and occupation are taken into account, the pay gap between white British and most other ethnic groups becomes narrower, though significant differences remain.’
The analysis found that in 2018 a Chinese employee typically made £15.75 an hour and an Indian worker £13.47. A white British employee earned £12.03 and Bangladeshis only £9.60.
The gender pay gap was dramatically different among ethnic groups, the ONS found.
The highest-earning groups showed the biggest gender gap, with Indian men earning 23.3 per cent more an hour than Indian women while Chinese men earned 19.1 per cent more than Chinese women.
Among white British and black British, African and Caribbean workers the gender pay gap was only 3.3 per cent. There was evidence of a closing ethnicity pay gap for younger people as black African, Caribbean and British workers under 30 earned pay rates almost the same as white British workers.

Office workers are seen at lunch break (stock)
The report added: ‘In broad terms, it can be seen that the earnings for younger ethnic minority employees tend to be closer to their white British counterparts compared with older ethnic minority employees.’
The ONS found that among all groups, people born outside Britain earned less than those born in this country.
It said: ‘Factors that affect pay vary. White British employees have the joint highest average age of 41 and pay generally increases as age increases.
‘If we look at occupation, we see a large proportion from the Indian group work in professional occupations – 33 per cent.’