Ethnic minorities who work in Irish Higher Education system are underpaid compared to others, a new research survey has found. The survey was conducted by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) by consulting 3,000 staff across the universities, colleges and technological institutes in the country during a period of the end 2020 and the beginning of 2021.
The aim of the survey was to find out whether the ethnic minorities like Asians and Africans are equally treated within the system.
In the final report, it was found that 77% of the minority groups such as Asians and black Africans earn less than €60,000 a year, compared to 45% of white Irish who earn less than this amount, reports The Irish Times.
When the high earners are considered, only 17% of ethnic minority people earn more than €75,000 per year. But 38% of white Irish earn more than €75,000 which shows there is a clear discrimination towards the minority.
Another finding is, when compared to white Irish, more ethnic minorities are being given part-time jobs in the higher education institutes. And the institutes give priority to white Irish people for full-time jobs.
Many respondents in the survey said that they feel there is a clear discrimination while selecting for jobs at the higher education institutes in the country. Also many of them said they have no idea where to report if such a discrimination is faced.
The report may encourage institutes to recruit more ethnic minorities as the future research funds given to the institutes will be based on the progress on race equality. For the purpose of the survey, race equality was defined as “equal representation, equal experiences and equal outcomes of staff from minority ethnic groups.”
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), 10% of the population in Ireland are not white. So equal representation of people who are not white has become a real need in the recent years.