ETHNIC minority workers earn an average of 10.2 per cent less in Scotland than white people do, new figures revealed today.

The Office for National Statistics found that the pay gap is substantially more than the Britain-wide average of 3.8 per cent last year.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard condemned the “shameful” pay disparity and called on the Scottish government to review how it can use procurement policies to close the gap.

Mr Leonard cited his party’s policies for the devolution of employment law and increasing the minimum wage to £10 an hour as ways to tackle this “pay shame.”

He said: “People from Scotland’s ethnic minority communities play a vital part in our economy and it is shameful that there is any pay gap between ethnic minority workers and white workers.

“The fact that Scotland’s ethnic minority pay gap is more than double the UK average is unacceptable and that’s why Scottish Labour want the Scottish Parliament to have the power to improve employment laws and tackle injustices like this.

“If we had a UK-floor we could prevent a race to the bottom on wages, terms and conditions.

“But I urge the First Minister and her government to urgently review its own procurement practices to ensure they are also doing all they can to deliver fair pay for all.”

The figures show that employees of Chinese, Indian and mixed ethnicity all had higher median hourly pay than white British employees in 2018.

Employees in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi ethnic groups had the lowest median hourly pay.