The Mayor of London says “more needs to be done” to tackle pay gaps between white people and people from ethnic minorities.

These calls come as new figures, from 2018, reveal the difference in pay between white people and people from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) background at the Greater London Authority (GLA).

The average pay of white employee working for the GLA is £24.41 per hour.

But for someone from an ethnic minority it is £21.62 per hour – an 11.4 per cent gap – although this is down by 16 per cent from 2017.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “The colour of your skin should have no bearing on what you can achieve. We’ve made progress at City Hall and across the group, but this data clearly shows there is more work to be done.

“While we should be proud of the progress made, there’s no denying the data presents a mixed picture and there is much more we need to do.

“Those organisations in which the ethnicity pay gaps has increased must redouble their efforts to tackle this issue head-on.”

The Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) and Transport for London saw their ethnicity pay gaps up between 2017 and 2018 by 3.5 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively.

The Metropolitan Police Service, the London Legacy Development Corporation, the Old Oak Common and the Park Royal Development Corporation saw a fall in their ethnicity pay gaps between 2017 -although BAME employees were still paid less.

The London Fire Brigade however have no ethnicity pay gap with both white and employees from ethnic minorities paid £16.51 an hour – the same as in 2017.

City Hall say the reason for the ethnicity pay gap is the lack of staff from ethnic minorities at the GLA – not because white people and those from ethnic minorities are paid differently for the same roles.

Mr Khan has also published an ‘ethnicity pay gap action plan’ which aims to reduce the pay gap between white people and people from ethnic minorities within the GLA.

The deputy mayor for social integration, social mobility and community engagement, Debbie Weekes-Bernard, said: “It’s vital we all play a role if we are to tackle the barriers and inequality still faced in our city.

“We’re determined that City Hall leads by example and that’s why the Mayor is taking action to tackle the ethnicity pay gap and urging organisations to do the same.”