Ethnicity Pay Gap

There is no statutory duty to analyse or report on ethnicity pay, but in line with our determination to advancing racial equality we  have committed to do so. Our Ethnicity Pay Gap analysis follows the same methodology as is required for statutory reporting of the Gender Pay Gap, including the calculation of median and mean gaps, and quartiles. Employees who have declined to disclose their ethnicity, or whose ethnicity is unknown are excluded from the analysis (including headcounts).

The University recognises the limitations of using only Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) as a way of grouping colleagues and therefore provides data on both two and five groups of ethnicity.

• Two groups is reported as the difference between White staff and staff from a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic (BAME) background.
• Five groups is reported as the difference between White staff and staff from either a Black, Asian, Mixed or other background.

A positive number for a gap indicates that the mean or median pay amount is higher for White staff than for staff from other ethnic groups.

A total of 616 staff (15.4% of the total), comprising 291 women and 325 men identify with an ethnic minority group. Some 3,213 staff (80.3%) identify as ‘White’ and a further 174 (4.4%) staff have not declared their ethnicity.

Two groups analysis

The ethnicity pay gap is the percentage difference in average pay of the reference group (‘White’ employees) and comparative ethnic groups. The overall mean ethnicity pay gap at Northumbria University is 0.8% and the median ethnicity pay gap is zero. While positive, it should be noted that the median ethnicity pay gap had previously been in favor of ethnic minority staff .

Ethnicity pay gap (two groups) 2024

Ethnicity pay gap (two groups) 2021 to 2024

Figure 7

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Further analysis considering the proportion of ethnic minority men and women in each pay grade, highlights that ethnic minority representation varies significantly across grades, with men generally having higher representation than women at most pay levels. The highest proportions of ethnic minority men are seen in pay grades 6, 7, and 8, with a peak at grade 8 (24.5%), whereas the highest proportion for women is at grade 6 (17.8%). At higher pay grades (9 and 10), representation drops sharply for both genders, with no ethnic minority staff reported at grade 10. This suggests that ethnic minority employees face barriers to reaching the highest pay grades, and there may be gender disparities within these groups as well.

Proportion of ethnic minority men and women in each pay grade (of those that reported)

Figure 8

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Five groups analysis

Further analysis by ethnic group shows variations among different ethnic groups, notably:

• Pay gaps are smallest for ‘Asian’ staff, with slightly higher average pay for this group than ‘White’ staff resulting in a -0.1% mean pay gap favouring ‘Asian’ staff and a zero median pay gap
• ‘Black’ staff have a moderate pay gap when their pay is compared to that of ‘White’ staff, with a 2.9% mean pay gap and a 1.9% median pay gap
• Staff in the ‘Mixed’ ethnic group experience the largest pay gap, with a 8.7% mean pay gap and an 11.1% median pay gap
• The pay gap for staff from ‘Other’ ethnic groups (the smallest group) is negative, which means their pay is on average higher than that for ‘White’ staff

Ethnicity pay gaps (five groups) 2024

Figure 9

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Intragroup pay gap analysis

Intragroup pay gap analysis examines pay differences within the same sex by ethnicity, such as comparing pay for ethnic minority men to ‘White’ men or ethnic minority women to ‘White’ women. This approach highlights how intersectional factors operate within a particular gender group, isolating the effect of ethnicity.

If we compare average pay for ethnic minority female staff with ‘White’ female staff, we find an intergroup pay gap of 5.8% at the mean and 3.8% at the median. This is much wider on both measures than the overall ethnicity pay gap, which compares all ethnic minority staff with all ‘White’ staff. This means that on average ethnic minority women are paid less than ‘White’ and they fare worse than ethnic minority staff as a whole. A key cause is an overrepresentation  of ethnic minority women in lower-paying roles with lower wages compared to ‘White’ women. Ethnic minority women face potential disadvantage in respect of pay due to both gender and ethnicity.

Intragroup pay gap for women 2024

Table 10

Intragroup pay gap for men 2024

Table 11

A further look at the ethnicity pay gap between same-gender staff by staff group shows the gap is wider for women in academic roles, while the opposite is the case for men where the ethnicity gap is larger for men in professional support roles.

Intragroup pay gap by staff group 2024

Table 12

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