Differences in salary between blacks and whites in Bermuda highlighted by an employment survey published last week is not evidence of discrimination, the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC) has said.

ABIC believes that the difference can be almost completely explained by differences in education and skill sets, rather than race, and says that opinion has been backed up by Ministry of Finance analysis.

Government's 2009 edition of The Bermuda Job Market Employment Briefs revealed that during 2008 the average salary of white staff was 40 percent higher than black employees.

White workers earned a median annual income of $71,607 versus $50,539 for black workers — a gap of $21,000.

"Before one makes the huge leap to attribute the earnings gap to discriminatory practices, one must compare the salaries paid for the same job categories," ABIC said in a statement responding to the report's findings.

"At a recent Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda (ICAB) meeting, Dr. Andrew Brimmer, economic adviser with Ministry of Finance, reported that he and his colleagues had completed extensive analysis of income data in Bermuda and concluded that virtually all of the differences in income levels between Bermudians of either race are fully explainable by differences in skill sets and education, as opposed to race. The ongoing impact of past inequities in education and skill levels has resulted in an income distribution that is skewed with black Bermudians earning less on average than white Bermudians."

Correlating salaries by Bermuda status did not identify the cause of salary differences, ABIC continued.

ABIC said "the most obvious solution to historic inequity in opportunity is to provide Bermudians of all races with the skills and education required to enter any area of the workforce to which they aspire". To this end, ABIC said the business community supported the educational reform efforts headed by Education Minister El James.

"The root cause for differences in income is a correlation between job/income and education and skills," the ABIC statement added. "Census 2000 shows that 65 percent of blacks 16 years and older fell below the tertiary (college) education level, of this 34 percent had not graduated from high school — in comparison 44 percent of whites had education below the tertiary level.

"The occupational growth from 1991 to 2000 for blacks for the top professional and technical jobs in absolute terms was — preschool professional (129), accountant (84), and middle schoolteacher (83). For whites it was accountant (479), underwriter (128), and lawyer (91).

"The good news is that between 1991 and 2000 all segments of the community advanced academically, regardless of gender and race."

ABIC has awarded almost 400 scholarships to Bermudian students since 1970, and many of those ABIC Education Awards alumni are in leadership positions in international business. The ABIC award is a based on both academics and need, and recently a mentoring component was added.

ABIC notes that international business brings in more than 70 percent of the Island's revenue and that salaries paid in this internationally competitive sector are higher than in other sectors.

"International business can be domiciled in New York, London, Switzerland or any of a number of competitive offshore domiciles — fortunately for us Bermuda has positioned itself as host to a vibrant international sector, with more than 60 percent of all jobs in this sector being held by Bermudians.

"As expected, many of the top positions in international business are held by guest workers who bring with them the experience and expertise developed in the major financial centres across the globe, and the inclusion of this group in a comparison of black and white Bermuda salaries produces a very different result to a straightforward comparison of Bermudian employees."