Chinese and Indian workers in the UK outearn their white British counterparts by almost £10,000 a year, the first government ethnic pay gap data has revealed.

Figures compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) spanning from 2012 to 2018 found that Chinese and Indian workers consistently had the highest median hourly pay of any ethnic group.

The statistics showed that Chinese workers earned an average of £15.75 an hour in 2018. This was closely followed by Indian workers who earned an hourly average of £13.47. In contrast, white British workers earned an average of £12.03.

Based on these employees working 40-hour weeks for 52 weeks a year, the result is that Chinese workers could earn almost £10,000 a year (with an annual salary of around £33,000) more than their white British counterparts (who would earn around £25,000). Meanwhile Indian workers would earn around £28,000 a year based on the annual salary calculation.

Meanwhile the ONS found that the highest median hourly pay of other ethnic groups were as follows: Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups (£12.33), White other (£11.33), any other Asian group (£11.50), Black, African, Carribean or Black British (£10.92), Pakistani (£10.00), Other ethnic group (£10.92) and Bangladeshi (£9.60).