Microeconomics: IB Economics

Evidence of discrimination in the labour market? Certainly the Living Wage Foundation data would imply this - although a lot of the data is anecdotal. However, the quantitative data shows that BAME workers are more likely to earn below the real living wage than white workers; the sane is also true of female workers relative to men. But does this necessarily reflect discrimination though? 

Are workers homogenous in terms of education, experience and so on? And what about the geographic distribution of workers. Certainly the data seems to point to discrimination but it needs to be treated with a degree of caution. 

It seems that some the UK's largest firms are unwilling to voluntarily disclose their ethnicity pay gaps. One wonders why? Existing evidence shows that there's some discrimination albeit not straightforward.

Having an Irish brogue may increase earnings, and contradict Weber's notion of the Protestant work ethic, and other ethnic groups renowned for hard work - notably Chinese and Indian earn more per hour than white British people. However, other groups lose out.

This is a complex issue with many contributory factors, but it might see the government legislate to make the publication of ethnicity pay gaps obligatory. That said, whether or not this is good economics is an entirely different matter. 

The House of Commons Women's and Equality Committee have called for large companies to publish data on their ethnicity pay gap in much the same way that they publish their gender pay gap. It always seems appealing; however, does it necessarily result in a fall in such pay gaps? And if so, at what cost?

This is one of those policy areas where, instinctively, something seems 'fair' or 'the right thing to do' but might not necessarily be 'good economics.