Equality legislation in the UK Hui Yu Di Runhui

辉宇 狄润卉

Abstract Equality policies have a long history in the UK and having been included within employment policy and standard business practice. However， inequalities in earnings are still high in Britain compared with other industrialised countries. Specific to sex and race discrimination， the two typical traditional equal opportunities issues which can be considered to be the main organising principles of the labour marke. Against this back ground， this paper aims to discuss and evaluate equality legislation issues.

Key words equality policies   sex and race discrimination

1. British equality legislation

Legislation exists to protect against discrimination on grounds of gender， race， age， disability and sexual orientation， etc. The starting point of the British equality legislation was the 1980s as this decade three major statutes were enacted and laid the foundation for the present legal framework： the Sex Discrimination Act （1975）; the Equal Pay Act （1970）; and the Race Relations Act （1976）.

As the equality legislation area is now largely governed by European Union law system， there is some British legislation was introduced due to the requirements of EU law. In brief， as Dickens （2007） summarised， over the past thirty years， the equality legislation has developed more comprehensive in terms of grounds and some limitations were significantly improved by amendments， it has seen a recent shift away from a focus on passively “anti-discrimination” towards positively promoting equality.

2. How fair are women and minorities in the UK

2. 1 Women in the workplace

Compare with women from past generations， there has great change in womens lives in this day such as access to the vote， access to education and relative broader occupation selection. According to the Report of the National Equality Panel （2012）， girls now have better educational outcomes than boys at sixteen years old. From this result it can be seen that women are more likely to further higher education and achieve good degrees than men and thus more women have higher education qualifications than men in every age group up to age 44. In the political field， in 2008， women comprised 19.3 percent of Parliament members and 26.1 percent of Cabinet members compared with 18.1 percent and 23.8 respectively in 2003. In business area， female comprised 11 percent of directors in Financial Times and Stock Exchange 100 companies compared with 8.6 percent in 2003.

However， even the progress has been made， it is still a long way for women to achieve true “liberation” and equality as men because they still experiencing server stress to keep a balance between work and family life when pursuing careers. First is the slow rate of this progress. As the EHRC （2008） demonstrated， at present rates， it still needs 200 years for women to achieve equality in Parliament; 73 years that gender equality can be achieved at Board level in FTSE 100 firms; and 55 years to achieve an equal number of female in the senior judiciary. In addition， for working women， gender discrimination such as the equal pay gap and the glass ceiling is still happens in the workplace.

2.2 Women in the legal profession

The progress of gender equality legislation can be seen from a report published by Equal Opportunity Commission （2005） and it has revealed major issues relating to gender within the solicitors branch of the legal profession in Scotland. Generally， there were higher levels of satisfaction among female employees in sectors other than private practice. On the other hand， besides the legislation achievements， there is still an apparent gender imbalance in the law profession workplace （EOC， 2005）. First， almost half of the female respondents had been a solicitor for less than 10 years， whereas among the men half had been admitted for more than 21 years. That means the number of female solicitors is still very low and the promotion opportunity is less for them. Second， even though the majority of respondents of both genders attended state school， fewer women than men had a fee-paying education. Moreover， there is still a strong gender imbalance that women shoulder more responsibilities such as raising children and doing housework than men and family friendly policies like crèche facilities and child care vouchers were fairly rare， particularly in private sectors many statutory entitlements were not available. In addition， the proportion of male those worked out with “standard office hours” is higher than female and the areas where men dominate within the profession tend to be paid well while the majority of areas that women form are regarded as being poorly paid. The inequality situation is worse refers to the pay gap within males and females.

2.3 Minority in the workplace

As the historical background， UK became more ethnically diverse during the past three decades and besides the fact that white people are the majority population， it declined continuously from 94.1 percent to 86 percent between 1991 and 2011. Meanwhile， the population of ethnics was increased. Overall， the employment gaps for ethnic minorities are narrowing over time.

Despite some growth in the employment rates， unfair is still the central issue to ethics in the workplace. For example， minority ethnics have higher unemployment rate and lower payment than the White population. According to data from Equal Opportunities Commission， the unemployment rate of ethnic groups was 12 percent， which was more than twice of the White in 2002; and ethnic full-time employees earned 29 percent less than the white population. National average wage for ethnic minority employees was 347 pounds but for white employees the figure was 376 pounds. For the Bangladeshi and Pakistani populations the situation even worse that they earned 46 percent less than that for the White people， just 235 pounds. For Muslims， there are many practical barriers preventing Muslim women from working and only 1 in 4 of them works; and young Muslims are also more likely to spend periods out of the labour market than White Christian people （Government Equalities Office， 2012）.

3. The evaluation of Britain equality legislation

It can be seen from equality situation of women and ethnic minorities in the Britain workplace that much of progress has been made in the legislation road， and it is clear that the anti-discrimination legislation has had positive impacts. Positive impacts include important effects such as increasing employment participation rate， narrowing pay gap and broadening profession selection etc. on various social groups in the workplace. These legislation progresses can be proved by the improvement of equality conditions for women and ethnic minorities. Besides these direct positive influences， indirect impacts of equality law， for example， agenda setting， equal opportunity policies establishing， workforce monitoring and employer human resource policy and practices shaping （Dickens， 2007）， are also play a vital role in advancing equality legislation in the UK labour market. The greatest advancement is the shift from passive anti-discrimination to proactive equality promotion.

On the other hand， the UK labour market is still characterised by continued discrimination， disadvantage and segregation on different social groups. Horizontal and vertical segregation still gendered and racialised. From data and survey， we can see that inequality issues such as job segregation， pay gap and employment pyramids severely exist in the workplace of the UK， the situation is even worse for minority women. In addition， it should be noted that the reasons for this continuous inequality are complex thus it is difficult to understand unfair cases particularly for combined discrimination situation. However， to measure whether this is influenced by personal choice， cultural pressures， discrimination or lack of opportunities is a difficult task. Thus， as Dickens （2007） argued， the road of equality legislation in the UK is long. May be not just in Britain， it is true for the workplace all over the world.

4. Conclusion

This paper evaluates UKs equality legislation progress from contemporary situation of social groups in the labour market， women and ethnic minorities， through analysing data from official reports and academic researches. It can be seen that， after thirty years of equality legislation in Britain， much progress has been made refers to pay gap， employment rate， senior professional and managerial positions， and occupation choices etc. At the same time， there still needs great attempts to achieve more profound and radical equality among different groups.

References：

[1]Dickens， L. （2007）. “The Road is Long： Thirty Years of Equality Legislation in Britain”， British Journal of Industrial Relations， 45（3）， 463–494

[2]Equality and Human Rights Commission （2010）. How fair is Britain？ Equality， Human rights and Good relations in 2010.The First Triennial Review

[3]Equal Opportunities Commission （2007） Moving on up？ The way forward. Report on the EOCs investigation into Bangladeshi， Pakistani and Black Caribbean women and work， March

[4]European Commission （2009）. Gender equality is part of the solution to exit the crisis. Available at： http：//europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-09-1965_en.htm

[5]Hills， J. et al. （2010）. An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK. Report of the National Equality Panel. London： Government Equalities Office

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