People Like Us Correct the Bias of Britain's Ethnicity Pay Gap
Non-profit People Like Us, is highlighting autocorrect bias when it comes to names, often leading to misidentification and a sense of exclusion for individuals with diverse names. Their latest campaign taps into this insight to help correct the pay gap between ethnicities. Their national ‘Autocorrected Pay Gap’ campaign is now live across multiple locations in the cities of London and Edinburgh. The campaign uses real autocorrect examples to highlight that subconscious bias in favour of English-heritage names affects everything from autocorrect to your monthly pay packet.
People Like Us works to address established inequity by creating accountability and tackling the ethnicity pay gap, campaigning for workplace equality and mandatory pay gap reporting. In 2022, People Like Us research showed workers from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and minority ethnic backgrounds are paid 16% less than their white counterparts. It also found that two thirds (67%) of racially diverse working professionals polled said they have had reason to believe that a white colleague doing the same job as them was on a higher salary. A quarter (24%) said they suspected the disparity in pay was up to £5,000, meaning people of colour could be losing out on £255,000 of earnings in a working lifetime due to the stark ethnic pay gap*.
The call to action across all the ‘Autocorrected’ executions drives to a petition that’s asking government to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting. The campaign is the latest instalment of work created in partnership with independent creative agency, Worth Your While.
Sheeraz Gulsher, co-founder of People Like Us commented, “The problem with these types of clunky, and often, offensive autocorrections is that it perpetuates the myth that non-Anglophone names are foreign and difficult to pronounce. It reinforces a homogenous culture that excludes individuals with diverse backgrounds and undermines the efforts of organisations to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Anyone with a diverse name can give you examples of it. Ayan becomes Alan, Rishi becomes Rich and so on.
“And if your name gets auto-corrected by default, your salary might also default to the national average of 16% less – a reality experienced by people of ethnically diverse backgrounds.”
Tim Pashen, creative director, Worth Your While adds, “Autocorrect is a set of defaults designed to help users communicate seamlessly, but this comes at the expense of others, contributing to a devaluation of those with diverse names. Considering it’s built into the tech working professionals use to communicate, this felt like a rich tension to explore when it comes to highlighting the ethnicity pay gap, experienced by UK working professionals from diverse backgrounds.”
Ethnicity pay gap reporting has been debated in parliament over the past two years, however there are currently no plans to make it mandatory. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ report and subsequent 'Inclusive Britain' report published in March 2022 recommended that businesses report disparities voluntarily, yet there have been low levels of uptake. There have been joint calls for the bill from organisations including the Equality and Human Rights Commission, The Trade Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry.
