English Language Fluency and the Ethnic Wage Gap for Men in England and Wales

Using data from the Fourth National Survey of Ethnic Minorities, English language fluency is shown to have an important influence over the level of earnings that ethnic minorities are able to command within the employee labour market. There is also evidence to suggest that language fluency has some role to play in describing the difference in average weekly earnings between white and ethnic minority workers, but it does not emerge as a major determinant. Indeed, it would appear that the concentration of ethnic minorities in local enclaves with their high levels of unemployment has a greater influence over the level of ethnic earnings disadvantage.