After ITN published its BAME pay gap, we need to talk about inequality in journalism for people of colour

When government-mandated gender pay gap reports for larger companies were released this April, the response was generally of great alarm. With a picture of structural workplace inequality right before our eyes, women in a number of industries were galvanised to speak out, pushing for better opportunities and more transparency in the process.

In the media, Carrie Gracie, the BBC’s former China editor, who was revealed to have been paid thousands less than her male counterparts, became somewhat of a figurehead of the wider campaign to see equal pay for women. As her interview with The New Yorker recently revealed, Gracie found the battle for fair pay so distressing that she believed it to be “worse than breast cancer”, which she was diagnosed with some years ago.

Aside from the small number of companies who failed to comply with the new rules, there was a general consensus that gender pay gap reporting was the best means of ensuring equal opportunities for all in the workplace.

But in the back of the minds of people with more intersecting identities was the question of where people of colour (POC) and in my case, women of colour, fit in with these statistics.

ITN released its report on its Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) pay gap on Wednesday, making it one of few media companies to do so. And in that report, equally as (and in some cases, even more) staggering as some of the figures outlined in its gender pay gap report, was the revelation that there was a 20.8 per cent median pay gap between BAME and white staff at the organisation, and a 50 per cent bonus gap.

Although marginally lower than those found in ITN’s gender pay gap report – there was an 18.2 per cent median pay gap between men and women – it was immediately clear that these two factors, ie gender and ethnicity, were equally important.

Given the fact that we haven’t been afforded a similar level of transparency from similar major organisations, it seems as though transparency over the pay of BAME staff has yet to be considered as big a priority.

It may be true that the threat of a hefty fine for failing to comply with the government’s gender pay gap reporting rules have acted as more of an incentive for companies than a general desire to do the right thing. But if the aim of this new-found openness around gender pay failings is to foster a stronger sense of morality where equal opportunities are concerned, warnings and financial punishments shouldn’t be the sole means of seeing BAME pay gap reporting through.

POC, and women and non-binary POC in particular, have more odds stacked against them from birth. The inequality can, and often does, start in school, where children of colour are more likely to be born into poverty, and have been known to struggle with being underestimated owing to socially ingrained racism. At university, racism can be similarly rife, with frequent exposure often cited as a major reason for waning self-esteem among students.

And when we enter the workplace, the picture is still grim. Last year, the unemployment rates for Bangladeshi, black and Pakistani people were at least five per cent higher than they were for white people (four per cent). When we actually do manage to get a foot in the door, the median pay for Bangladeshi, Pakistani and black African people tends to be the lowest. And in journalism, which in the UK is 94 per cent white and 86 per cent university educated, there is undoubtedly a sea of even more shocking figures with regards to the pay of ethnic minorities.

POC working in the media (or aspiring to) are too often left screaming into the wind about the extent of the inequalities we face in the workplace. And when we are taken seriously, moves to right the wrongs of inequality are often resigned to short-lived appeals, rather than real attempts at lasting change.

The optimist in me hopes that ITN’s report and resulting diversity initiatives will set a new precedent for media organisations who have yet to be as open. But I’m not holding my breath.