Landmark review into NHS ethnicity pay gap to be led by University of Surrey
The University of Surrey has been commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory to lead a major independent review into ethnicity pay gaps across the NHS in England
Until December 2026 next year the University of Surrey will lead a review looking at the reason behind the NHS ethnicity pay gap.
It will be the first comprehensive review of its kind, exploring differences in pay, career progression, pension contributions and overall earning potential between staff from different ethnic backgrounds.
The University's research team will work alongside national partners to investigate the underlying causes of any pay disparities and produce evidence-based recommendations for reducing or eliminating unjustified inequalities.
Professor Carol Woodhams, Professor of Human Resource Management at the University of Surrey, will co-lead the review.
Woodhams says that the main goal of the research is to determine what the reasons behind the pay gap are.
"It will look at the potentially direct links between black and minority ethnic status and pay, but more importantly and possibly a far more impactfully the indirect links.
Or they might find themselves to be overlooked for promotion, in which case they will not reach the levels of seniority that the length of service may justify."
Woodhams gave reasons as to what reasons could be leading to a pay gap with the NHS.
"You should view pay gaps generally, but black and minority ethnic pay gaps, particularly as a kind of distillation of all kinds of factors.
So it's not just about pay, it's about all of the inequalities that sit behind pay and can influence pay such as career progression. Such as unequal departure rates, such as the evidence of discrimination, bullying and harassment.
Black and minority ethnic staff may find their workplace is uncomfortable and therefore they may leave sooner. Therefore they'll never reach the levels of pay that perhaps could be expected of their levels of qualification.
All of this sits behind in the workforce and as those factors that are unequally experienced are distilled, that creates a pay gap."
The review is following the tracks laid down by the gender pay gap in medicine revenue.
Off the back of that review, a committee was founded, which meets quarterly that draws together different bodies within the NHS to coordinate activity to reduce the gender pay gap.
Woodhams says the ideal outcome of the review would be to create evidence for long-lasting change in a similar way
"The best case scenario is that we take forward these actionable and evidence-based recommendations to be able to create meaningful change."