UK publishing survey finds 90% of industry is white; gender pay gap still exists

A survey of more than 1000 people working in the UK publishing industry has found that more than 90% of respondents identify as white, reports the Guardian.

Of the 1,023 people who responded to the bookcareers.com salary survey in June-July this year, 90.4% identified their race as white British. This is down from 93.7% when the survey was last conducted in 2013.

Bookcareers.com founder Suzanne Collier said she thinks ‘it is going to take a long time for [diversity in the industry] to take hold’, despite publishers having recently been more proactive about hiring staff from diverse backgrounds. ‘Until that figure is reduced to about 60/40 we have not got true diversity,’ said Collier.

The salary survey also found that salaries have risen since 2013. The average salary in 2017 is £32,228 (A$52,497), up 11.7% on 2013, and the average starting salary for 19-23-year-olds with less than a year’s experience in the industry rising 13.2% to £20,470 ($33,347).

The proportion of women in the industry is also greater, with 84.6% of respondents identifying as female, up from 81.8% four years ago.

Despite this, the responses indicated a pay gap of 15.7% continues to exist between men and women, although where men and women were in the same roles, that pay gap was ‘negligible’, said Collier. The difference was a result of ‘many men’ being ‘employed in management or senior roles, and many women appear to be in lower roles’. Among the male survey respondents, 47.9% earned above the average salary compared with 31.5% of women.

Category: International news