AN Oxfordshire MP is calling for a new law to make firms publish their Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) pay gap.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran wants BAME pay gap reporting to become a legal obligation of businesses rather than voluntary.

She has written to the Confederation of British Industry, Trade Union Congress and British Retail Consortium to ask them to help her write the bill.

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The call comes amid Black Lives Matter protests across the country after the death of George Floyd in America.

Ms Moran plans to base the new law on the existing mandatory requirement for employers with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap.

She hopes it will shine a light on race and ethnicity based inequality in the workplace so that it can be addressed.

She said: “We now need to seize this moment to tackle some of the root causes and build a fairer, more equal society. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

“One of the biggest issues faced by BAME communities is economic inequality which then feeds into social injustice.

"Mandatory pay reporting would be a big step forwards – shining a light on injustices and making sure pay and working practices are improved.

“To make this happen I want to get bosses, employers and employees around the table and craft a law backed by all of them to bring about change. The time to act is now.”

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Currently it is voluntary for businesses to offer BAME pay gap information, but accounting firm PwC's survey of 80 businesses found that three-quarters lacked the data needed to analyse their ethnicity pay gap.

Employees in the Black African, Caribbean or Black British, Other and White Other ethnic groups on average earned five per cent to 10 per cent less than their White British counterparts between 2012 and 2018.