Seeking to level the playing field: QBE reveals its ethnicity pay gaps

Conversations had around ethnicity, race, and gender have altered considerably in recent years, and many organisations have been more aware—and vocal—about the composition of their staff. Many of these conversations have been uncomfortable, and some focused on pay.

Nikki Lees, QBE’s head of inclusion and wellbeing, came into the Re/Insurance Lounge, Intelligent Insurer’s online, on-demand platform for interviews and panel discussions with industry leaders, to talk about the company’s UK Ethnicity Pay Gap Report 2020. Released in July 2021, the report used data collated from the 80 percent of QBE’s staff who had listed their ethnicity when they began employment at the company and attempted, inter alia, to show the difference in the average hourly rate of pay between ethnic minority and white employees.

Unlike mandatory reporting on the gender pay gap under UK law, there is no legal call for a company to look at the differences of rates of pay between people of different ethnicities. “There’s no mandatory government requirement to publish this, but we decided to do so because we want to be open and transparent with our staff, hold ourselves to account, and do the right thing,” said Lees.