Oxfam paid its white staff a median of 33% less than colleagues who described themselves as black or a person of colour last year, according to the charity’s own annual report. Cancer Research UK and the British Red Cross reported similar negative ethnicity pay gaps in favour of ethnic minority staff.
The figures, drawn from the organisations’ voluntary disclosures, have prompted questions about how “positive action” provisions in the Equality Act 2010 are being applied in practice. Critics argue the measures, intended to address under-representation, are producing outcomes that disadvantage white employees in recruitment, promotion and pay.
Oxfam’s ethnicity pay gap stood at -33.0% on the median and -12.9% on the mean, based on data from 69.2% of staff who shared their ethnicity. Black or people of colour (BPOC) staff made up 10.5% of the workforce. The median gap had been -10.4% the previous year.
The charity noted that a higher proportion of staff in the top two pay quartiles disclosed their ethnicity, and that lower overall numbers of BPOC colleagues “may be driving a skew in the pay gap.” It stated the figures “cannot be seen as conclusive” but were “suggestive of lower average pay at the charity for white workers.”
A spokesman for Oxfam said the organisation was “committed to fair, inclusive recruitment practices that value diversity and ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive. We do not operate a policy of positive discrimination,” adding that the “reported ethnicity pay gap is not evidence of unequal pay for the same work.”
Cancer Research UK reported that white staff were paid 7.6% less on average in 2025. The charity has recorded a negative gap in favour of ethnic minority employees since 2020, though it said the figure is now “the closest to being neutral it has ever been.”
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