The earning power of Bermuda's workforce needs to be broken down into different categories and specific job types when comparing the salaries of black and white workers to give an fairer reflection of the situation, according to the Bermuda Employers Council (BEC).

This follows the release of Government's 2009 edition of The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs earlier this week, which revealed that during 2008 the average salary of white staff is 40 percent higher than black employees, with the median annual income of $71,607 for white workers last year versus $50,539 for black workers — a gap of $21,000.

But the BEC believes that those figures are open to interpretation which can be "misleading and provocative", while it could cause a reader to jump to the conclusion that there was some great wrong that needed to be put right, which may not be the case.

Instead, it reckons that statistics of black and white workers should be provided and compared within the same categories of employment, citing the example that if black employees made up a bigger proportion of jobs in lower-paying sectors and white workers comprised the larger percentage of positions in the categories which offer higher remunerations then it was evident there would be a disparity.

"We do not necessarily question the data itself, it is more the presentation, interpretation and reporting that leads us to believe that further analysis is warranted," the BEC said in a statement in response to the report in yesterday's edition of The Royal Gazette.

"We would question the rationale of using median values as a simple illustration of what is a very complex situation.

"To get a picture that has meaning and is reflective of the real situation, figures have to be provided and compared within the same categories."

The BEC said such disparities in wages were a by-product of the realities of the Island's economic framework, which was currently an "unavoidable fact of life" and could only be changed if people in lower-paying jobs gained the necessary qualifications and experience to move into higher paying jobs. The Council pointed out the extensive research it has undertaken into employment in Bermuda, culminating in its report 'The Shift', but added that it now saw the need to carry out further research and analysis to better inform the Island's public.

Doug Soares, partner at Expertise, said there was a common perception in Bermuda that the main cause of the gap in earnings was employer discrimination, but added there were a number of legitimate reasons behind the disparity, such as degree holders and professionally designated individuals making more in wages than those performing jobs that do not require such qualifications, and private sector positions, particularly in international business, tending to pay significantly more than roles in the public sector requiring the same levels of qualification.

However, he pointed out that Bermuda does not collect and report employment data in a format in which the degree the wage gap is caused by legitimate factors can be determined, unlike in other jurisdictions like Canada.

"Many employers work earnestly to ensure that their employment practices are free from overt or systemic discrimination," he said.

"It is critically important that we eradicate unlawful discrimination. What would be helpful to employers is data estimates showing the degree to which discrimination causes the wage gap.

"Ideally, they would also like a larger pool of Bermudians with higher levels of education."

Mr. Soares said that, according to the 2000 census, 11 percent of black Bermudians and 24 percent of white Bermudians possess an undergraduate degree, and because this is the minimum standard of entry for many high paying jobs — which include opportunities for further employer-funded professional education — the wage gap will not close until the number of qualified Bermudians can be significantly increased.

But he stressed that improvements to Bermuda's education system would take many years and, in the meantime, the ratio of expatriate workers to Bermudians was likely to rise if our economy continued to expand due to growth in international business.

Chris Furbert, leader of the Bermuda Industrial Union, said the disparity between the salaries of black and white workers had been an issue for many years, but hoped that going forward employment discrimination would be addressed and different races doing the same job would be on the same wage structure, while the value of a position needed to be taken into consideration rather than simply the qualifications a person held.

The Annual Review of the Workforce Survey Report 2006 showed that almost 9,500 black Bermudians had a gross annual income of between $24,000 and $59,000 — the largest number of any group based on race and Bermudian/non-Bermudian status and in second lowest earnings bracket, while white non-Bermudians dominated the pay scale for the $24,000 to $59,000, $60,000 to $95,000, $96,000 to $155,999 and $156,000 or more categories compared to other non-Bermudians.

The difference in median income levels between black and white workers is a trend which has continued for at least the past three years, with this paper reporting in July 2006 that Government figures for 2005 showed that blacks earned $44,263 compared to $61,154 for whites.