FE ethnicity pay gap revealed

Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities at region and leader level reveal cold spots in pay gaps

Underrepresentation of ethnic minorities at region and leader level reveal cold spots in pay gaps

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Ethnic minority teachers and leaders in FE are paid more than their white colleagues – but there is a stark underrepresentation in top roles, an FE Week probe has found.

Never-before-published figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request show non-white teachers earned a few hundred pounds more than their white counterparts in 2022/23, equivalent to 1 per cent.

The FE ethnicity pay gap bucks the trend for the rest of England’s education sector, where pay gaps that favour white people were 7 per cent among school teachers and 5.2 per cent for university staff.

Jeff Greenidge, director for diversity and governance at the Association of Colleges, said the analysis shows a “positive reflection” of the dedication to diversity across the sector that makes FE a “welcoming sector to study and work in”.

The data provided to FE Week shows FE teachers from ethnic minority backgrounds earned an annual median salary of £34,927 in 2022/23 – the most recently available data – compared with £34,546 paid to white teachers.

The overall ethnicity pay gap for England stands at 2 per cent as of 2022 in favour of ethnic minority workers, but it differs amongst ethnic groups. Nationally, black workers earn on average 5.7 per cent less than white workers, but workers of mixed or multiple ethnicities outearn white employees by 7.2 per cent.

The data provided to this publication showed that ethnic minority teachers made up 12 per cent (7,206) of the FE teaching workforce. White teachers made up 77 per cent (44,553), and the rest (12 per cent) preferred not to state their ethnicity.

First-of-its-kind analysis

All FE colleges and training providers have to submit ethnicity and pay data to the Department for Education as part of its annual FE workforce data collection, which now covers two academic years.

The DfE held the data obtained by FE Week on ethnicity pay but it has never been made publicly available.

FE Week analysed the median pay of FE staff across all ethnic groups broken down by provider type, role, age, gender and geography.

However, pay figures were only provided for the 150,000 staff on permanent or fixed-term contracts, which is about 75 per cent of the FE workforce. The DfE also excluded data where fewer than 25 people were counted in any region.

Median pay, which is referenced throughout our analysis, shows a salary midpoint in the range.

Handle with care

The pay gap in favour of ethnic minorities was even higher among FE leaders, but this was largely skewed by London-weighted salaries and a lack of non-white leaders outside the capital and West Midlands.

The DfE’s workforce survey defines a leader as any provider senior manager, including directors, principals, vice principals, assistant principals, chief executives and managing directors.

Ethnic minority leaders in FE made up 7 per cent of all 5,748 recorded leaders and were paid 5 per cent more than white bosses (£65,576 vs £62,180).

This is an underrepresentation, however, as figures for 254 non-white leaders were not provided as they did not meet the DfE’s statistical threshold across individual regions.

And despite ethnic minority leaders being concentrated in London, they earned an average median salary of £67,586, 9 per cent below white leaders earning £74,307.

Meanwhile, Asian leaders in the West Midlands, the only other ethnic group with regional data provided, earned a median of £59,546, 4 per cent below white leaders in the area.

Paul Bridge, UCU head of further education, said: “This research highlights that too many institutions, be it through caution or complacency about pay inequality, must be well aware that black [ethnic minority] staff are dramatically under-represented at higher levels but have let it slip under the radar for too long.”

Greenidge said the data “highlights the areas we need to focus on for the future; inter-regional pay differences for example, and the consistent disparity between male and female pay across all ethnicities”.

Regional cold spots

FE Week’s analysis found differences in the ethnicity pay gap across the English regions.

Non-white FE teachers were paid more than the regional average in five out of nine areas of the country. They were paid less than the regional average in the east of England, London, south east, and the north west.

Teachers from “other ethnic groups” in the West Midlands earned the most out of the whole country, paid an average (median) salary of £44,256, outpacing the regional average of £36,376.

The DfE defines “other ethnic groups” as “any other ethnic group, Arab”.

In London, the highest paid teachers were from mixed/multiple ethnic groups, earning 5 per cent more than the regional average at an annual median salary of £43,582.

But black teachers earned 5 per cent less than their white counterparts in London (£39,821 vs £42,000). White teachers earned 2 per cent more than the average teacher in the capital (£41,317).

ONS data shows a 30 per cent ethnicity pay gap (an hourly median of £14.16) amongst black workers London-wide in 2022 and a 12.3 per cent gap for Asian workers (£17.71) compared with white workers (£20.20).

Some colleges report their ethnicity pay gaps and are making some improvements, such as Croydon College which reduced its ethnicity pay gap for all staff from 15.9 per cent to 13.6 per cent in 2023.

Meanwhile, Milton Keynes College group reported a 2.5 per cent ethnicity pay gap amongst its non-white staff, who made up 16.5 per cent of its 1,110 workforce in 2023-24. The gap widened from its prior two years of voluntary data, when it reported 2.1 and 1.9 per cent pay gaps respectively. Its published report details steps it is taking to close the gap, including internal leadership development programmes.

Bridge said: “All institutions must be prepared to radically examine their structures, policies and procedures and make changes, and employers must work with us to analyse all pay gaps, including ethnicity, gender and disability.”

Gender differences

Our investigation also found that men of all ethnicities working in FE are paid more than women. 

Overall, female ethnic minorities were paid a median of £30,165 – 10 per cent less than white men, 11 per cent less than male ethnic minorities and 5 per cent more than white women.

The smallest pay gap amongst the same ethnicities was 8 per cent, between men and women from “other” ethnic groups.

The largest pay gap was from those who did not state their ethnicity at 15 per cent, followed by white men earning 14 per cent more than white women (£33,536 vs £28,693).

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want teaching to be a supportive and inclusive profession, and it’s important we attract and retain talented FE teachers and leaders who represent the communities they serve.

“We recognise there is still more to do, and we are working hard to support recruitment and retention of teachers from lots of different backgrounds, with equal opportunity for all.”

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One comment

  1. I hope they accounted for the skew that exists for regional analysis where data returned might not represent where individuals actually work.

    For instance, a national provider with various staff spread nationally, all data will be associated with the region where the HQ sits, not where those individuals actually work or live (think large College groups or national ITPs).

    That impacts any subsequent cross slicing regional analysis… It could amplify, nullify or even invert hot / cold spots! (and comparing potentially skewed regional FE workforce data to ONS averages and taking it at face value could be a recipe for poor decision making)