Our commitment to closing the ethnicity pay gap

In October 2018, we signed the Race at Work Charter, which sets out seven actions to improve the representation of all employees at all levels in organisations. One of these is capturing ethnicity data and reporting progress. 

We first published our ethnicity pay data in our 2018–19 annual report and have published a dedicated ethnicity pay gap report since 2020. With four years of ethnicity pay gap data, we continue to report and we choose to go behind the headline figures. We do this because we are committed to fostering equality, diversity and inclusion within the CIPD and we want to understand how our culture and actions help us close the gap.

We remain committed to the Race at Work Charter. We pledge to keep listening to our own people. And we shape our policies, practices and roles based on what we learn, knowing that creating an inclusive culture within a talented, productive organisation means doing things differently. We also continue to call on the UK government to make this a mandatory requirement alongside gender pay gap reporting, and on employers to do so voluntarily.

Our ethnicity pay gap

The ethnicity pay gap is calculated by taking all employees across an organisation and comparing the average pay of our white employees with that of employees from ethnic minority groups. This means that even though we have clear externally benchmarked salary ranges in place for all jobs, to ensure that everyone is paid fairly for undertaking the same or a similar role, it’s still possible to have an ethnicity pay gap.

This year our median ethnicity pay gap widened by 2.3 percentage points to 16.8%. Our mean ethnicity pay gap widened by 2.0 percentage points to 13.1%. Fluctuations like these are not unexpected, particularly in a small organisation like ours, where small changes in our employee profile can have a significant impact.

Our report explores how our pay gap varies by ethnicity and the long-term actions we’re taking to close the gap over time. We continue to listen to our people from different ethnic groups across the CIPD. We want to understand their lived experience of working with us to inform all areas of policy and practice. We’re continuing to work towards a fully inclusive culture – one where difference is valued, where everyone has the option to work flexibly so they can deliver their best work, and where all CIPD people feel they belong and can be their authentic selves.

Download our 2023 ethnicity pay gap report

Access our ethnicity pay gap report archive