As demand for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting ramps up, online fashion retailer ASOS is the latest business to share its data.

Currently, there is no legal requirement for companies to publish their ethnicity pay gap, however calls have started to make it so, similar to that of gender pay gap reporting.

And ASOS has revealed its own figures, sharing that median pay for ethnic minority employees is now 5.9% higher compared to their white counterparts, a 21.2% improvement in the overall median ethnicity pay gap since 2020.

The data has been published following the release of ASOS’ new diversity targets set within its new 2030 Fashion with Integrity goals, part of the firm’s corporate responsibility programme.

As part of the Diverse Goal within the programme, ASOS hopes to reach over 15% ethnic minority representation across its combined leadership team by 2023, alongside 50% female representation, reflecting UK demographics.

While the ethnicity pay gap has improved at the retailer, is still has pay gaps between different ethnic groups, with a median pay gap of 13.4% for black/black British employees, and 14.1% for mixed/multiple ethnic groups in comparison to their white colleagues.

At the firm, ethnic minority staff make up 19% of its overall workforce, but only account for seven percent of combined leadership roles.

Commenting on the data Nick Beighton, chief executive officer (CEO) of ASOS, stated that there is still a “long way to go” for the business to get where it needs to be.

“We’re publishing our ethnicity pay gap alongside our gender pay gap today because we believe it’s a vital step towards understanding and improving ethnic minority representation within ASOS and the wider industry,” he explained.

“While we have made some significant improvements in some areas over the last 12 months, we know we still have a long way to go. We are using this data to help us lay the foundations of a truly inclusive culture and create a people experience that is like no other.”

‘Significant improvements’

ASOS also shared that it has been able to make “significant improvements” regards its gender pay gap too.

The firm stated that its gender pay gap is 32.3%, up from 30.6% in 2019/20, which ASOS believes is a result of women being underrepresented in higher paid roles in leadership and tech, coupled with a high proportion of female workers in entry level roles in its customer care and commercial teams.

ASOS stated it is working to hire more women into leadership roles, with a 2023 target set to increase this to 50%.

Making it mandatory

Companies with over 250 employees must publish their gender pay gap by law, but currently this isn’t the case with ethnicity pay gap reporting.

However, a recent petition has asked for this to made mandatory. Plus, businesses are starting to take it into their own hands and focus on their own data.

A PwC study has highlighted this, as in September 2020 it found that 65% of the companies surveyed are now collecting ethnicity data on their employees, while 32% of those firms said that they are calculating their ethnicity pay gap.

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