Equality and diversity facts and figures

Some facts and figures about discrimination

Discrimination at work can be expensive

56% rise in claims at employment tribunals to 236,100 in 2009-10 when compared with 2008-09

• For instance: Sex discrimination claims
  • highest award: £422,366
  • average award: £19,499
  • 18,200 claims in 2009-10, down from 18, 600 in 2008-09
• For instance: Age discrimination claims
  • highest: £48,710
  • average award: £10,931
  • 5,200 claims in 2009-10, up from 3,800 on 2008-09

Discrimination still exists at work - but most people don't want it to

• The gap between full and part-time men's and women's hourly rates of pay is 22.0% (1)
• 73% of women still believe that the glass ceiling exists and that there are barriers facing women looking to be appointed to senior management (2)
• 62% of women support positive action to increase the number of women at senior positions, compared to 42% of men (2)
• 50% of women managers have high or quite high levels of self-confidence compared to 70% of male managers (2)
• 17% of women believe that raising or caring for children has presented barriers to career development compared to 7% of men (2)
• 41% of women managers surveyed were childless compared with 28% of men (2)
• In Britain 40% of female jobs are in the public sector as opposed to 15% of male jobs (3)
• 1 in 10 people in work face potential mental health problems (3)
• People with a disability or long-term illness are over twice as likely to face bullying or harassment in the workplace as non-disabled people (3)
• Nearly 1 in 5 people of working age, around 7 million people, or 18.6% in Great Britain have a disability, whether hidden or not (4)
• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men in their 50s are carers (3)
• 80% of people believe it is wrong to make someone retire just because they have reached a certain age (5)
• 75% of people believe refusing a job to an applicant because they are over 50 is wrong; but 47% believe this happens often (5)
• 61% of people would work beyond 65 if offered flexible working arrangements (5)
• 64.5% of those aged 50-64 are in employment (5)
• 28.1% of those in work aged 50-64 work part-time (5)

Equality and diversity - how your organisation can benefit commercially

• Recent surveys in the USA show that 70% of all consumer spend is made by women (6)
• Better use of women’s skills in work could be worth in the region of £15 – 23bn for the economy each year (7)
• Grey pound set to hit £100bn mark, spending power of people over 65 (8)
• People aged over 50 account for around 44% of total family spend in the United Kingdom worth £276b in 2008 (8)
• People from ethic minorities and religious groups are significantly less likely than average to be in work, and when in work are paid significantly less than average, and this could be worth £8.6bn a year to the UK economy (9)
• It is expected that ethnic minority spending power will soon top £300bn (10)