The UK government has initiated a public consultation, running from March 18 to June 10, 2025, to gather feedback on its proposed Equality (Race & Disability) Bill. This legislation, announced in the King’s Speech in July 2024, aims to mandate ethnicity and disability gap reporting for employers with 250 or more employees across England, Wales and Scotland.

The initiative builds upon the existing gender pay gap reporting regulations, implemented in 2017, which already require large UK employers, including subsidiaries of US-based multinationals, to disclose gender pay disparities. This consultation seeks to refine the proposed Bill, ensuring it effectively addresses ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

Key consultation points

The consultation presents 27 questions for private sector employers, focusing on several critical areas.

Mandatory reporting

The government asks the fundamental question of whether larger employers should be legally obligated to report ethnicity and disability pay gaps. It is proposed that this mandate will mirror the area covered by gender pay gap reporting in England, Wales and Scotland.

Pay gap calculations

The government proposes using the same metrics as for gender pay gap reporting:

• mean and median hourly pay differences;
• pay quartiles (distribution of employees across four pay bands);
• mean and median bonus pay differences;
• percentage of employees receiving bonuses.

Employers would also be required to disclose:

• overall workforce breakdown by ethnicity and disability;
• percentage of employees who chose not to disclose ethnicity or disability data.

Action plans

Feedback on whether employers should be required to create and publish action plans to address identified pay gaps is sought.

Reporting timelines

The government proposes aligning ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting dates with the current gender gap regulations “snapshot date” of April 5, and reporting deadline (April 4 of the following year). Employers will be required to submit their data through an online portal.

Enforcement

The government suggests that the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which currently enforces gender pay gap reporting, should also oversee ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.

Ethnicity data

To ensure data privacy and statistical reliability, the government proposes a minimum threshold of 10 employees per ethnic group for analysis. Employers with fewer employees in specific ethnic groups may need to aggregate data or use binary classifications. The consultation proposes three binary classifications options.

Disability data

A binary approach is proposed, comparing pay between disabled and non-disabled employees. A minimum threshold of 10 employees per group is also suggested for disability pay gap calculations.

What next?

This consultation aims to gather diverse perspectives to inform the development of robust and effective legislation, promoting greater transparency and accountability in addressing ethnicity and disability pay disparities within the UK workforce.

Interested parties can respond via an online response form.