Workplace equality organisation People Like Us has partnered with creative agency Worth Your While on a new campaign targeting the ethnicity pay gap in the UK, which recent research suggests is around £3.2bn every year.
With the government currently reviewing the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which would introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, this campaign hopes to finally turn it into legislation.
“Ethnic minorities and disabled workers are being short-changed, not just in pay but in opportunity – and it’s costing this country billions,” explains Sheeraz Gulsher, co-founder of People Like Us. “Reporting is not a silver bullet, but it’s the bare minimum. If the government is serious about tackling inequality, now is the moment to act.”
As pressure on leaders builds, The Ethnicity Bill campaign is a final push by People Like Us to highlight the importance of addressing the huge pay gap. For the next two weeks, supersized bills showing the existing debt will appear on billboards across London, inviting passersby to engage with the issue.
Created in collaboration with Worth Your While, this OOH activation follows in the footsteps of similar recent campaigns by non-profit The Trussell Trust and skincare brand The Ordinary, that use the eye-catching format of a bill to convey important messaging.
Alongside the billboards, People Like Us has also worked with digital product agency Planes Studio to develop an online Receipt Generator tool, which allows users to create their own personalised receipts, and add their names to the movement.
Speaking on the issue, Worth Your While’s creative director Tim Pashen says: “The ethnicity pay gap costs Britain’s ethnic minority workers billions each year. And every day that reporting isn’t mandatory is another day of injustice. This is one bill the UK can’t afford to delay. Because inequality has a cost and it’s time to pay it back.”
