Black Caribbean workers 'earned more per hour than whites before recession'

[alp227]

Black Caribbean workers received the biggest pay rises on average during the pre-recession boom years, earning more per hour than their white peers by 2008, according to new research.

Researchers from the University of Essex say that although the gap between the hourly pay of white people and those from ethnic minorities as a whole more than doubled in the 15 years to 2008, there were marked differences between groups.

In an article published in the latest edition of the journal Work, Employment and Society, Essex University's Malcolm Brynin and Ayse Güveli analysed more than 650,000 results from the UK's large-scale quarterly Labour Force Survey.

This showed that in the four years beginning in 1993, pay per hour for whites averaged £6.90, 40p more than that earned by black Caribbeans, 30p more than British Indians and £2.20 more than Bangladeshis in the UK.

full: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/30/black-caribbean-workers-earned-whites

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Is this in 'all jobs', or a subset of jobs?

I ask because an average wage of £8.10/hour (or £8.40) seems quite low - it's not that much above minimum wage, and would equate to about £16,500 per year for a 40 hour week.

Here's a figure: 2006: average wage was £12.50 an hour.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Good point.

I also wonder whether 'white' means just white British, or includes white migrants, e.g. from Eastern Europe.

[dipsydoodle]

3. WTF is "black Caribbean workers" supposed to mean ?

Most of those referred to were born here which makes them as English as me.....possibly Welsh , Irish or Scottish. Same applies to Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis whatever - grouped as Asian / Indian sub continent.

There's an oddity somewhere here in the sampling.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's an ethnic category in the census, and, presumably, the Labour Force Survey too

(in England and Wales - Scottish and Northern Irish categories are slightly different)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_ethnicity_in_the_United_Kingdom#National_statistics

'Black or Black British' is subdivided into 'Caribbean', 'African' or 'any other Black background'