Labour Market that works for everyone
To achieve economic fairness in London, everyone working in London needs to be paid and treated fairly by employers. Pay gaps exist between a number of different groups. Increasing employee flexibility and support, providing secure employment and workplaces that reflect London’s population at all levels and are free from discrimination will offer a labour market that can work for everyone.
Narrowing Pay Gaps
Pay gaps exist because one group is paid, on average, less than another group. For example, women are paid less than men and Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups are paid less than White groups.
- The gender pay gap in hourly pay across London has decreased over time, but that decrease has stalled over the last decade (women’s median pay is 13.6 per cent lower than the median men’s pay for 2023).
- The pay gaps between the median pay for individual groups and the median pay for White British Londoners vary over time as samples change, but Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black African Londoners are consistently among the lowest paid. The overall White/Black, Asian and minority ethnic pay gap has been fairly stable in London since 2014, though has started to fall in recent years, mirroring the decline seen nationally.
- Disabled people that are in work are paid less on average than their non-disabled colleagues, with a difference in the median pay of around 10 per cent in London.
- The annual pay of the 5 per cent highest earning employees in London is 3.3 times the pay of middle earners.
Fair Employment
Not all employees enjoy workplace rights or are treated fairly by their employers. Some people continue to face discrimination in the labour market.
- As the number of London Living Wage employers rises, the number of employees guaranteed the LLW increases. The percentage of workers paid below the LLW has been relatively stable since 2015.
- The gaps in London’s employment rates by gender, disability and ethnicity have all decreased over the last decade or so.
- Around six per cent of workers in London are in insecure employment, with the pandemic triggering a decrease.
- The proportion of Londoners working on zero-hours contracts has risen dramatically over the last decade from below one per cent to around three per cent of the total in employment.
- More than a quarter of all workers in London reports some type of flexible working arrangement, up sharply since the Covid-19 pandemic started.