Exclusive new data shows ethnic minority employees need to work 58 minutes longer than their white colleagues to earn the same amount. But how can organisations begin to address the imbalance?

Employees at Sodexo were horrified by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020 and the food services and facilities management company felt it needed to do more to bring about meaningful change. One of its first actions was to sign an open letter to the Sunday Times newspaper from business leaders, pledging to set stretch targets for ethnic representation and report annually on its progress. The company then committed to reporting its ethnicity pay gap data, and was the first employer in the hospitality sector to publish this, in 2021.

“We believe data is one of the best places to start,” says Raj Jones, Sodexo’s head of diversity, equity and inclusion. “It shows you where people sit in the business, what pay equity is like. It enables conversations internally and holds us to account externally.” The company also set up a strategic taskforce made up of leaders from Black and other ethnic minority backgrounds to better understand the lived experiences of employees and start meaningful conversations about race. Jones says there is an “ongoing drumbeat” of activity around inclusion that brings in senior sponsors, employee networks and external speakers.

Sodexo is one of a growing number of employers choosing to voluntarily publish its ethnicity pay gap data as employee...

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