White privilege means higher pay for white residents — but complex factors also affect the wage gap, according to one employment head.Census statistics show consistent variance in median annual incomes for white and black workers who hold the same level degrees.The 2010 median for a white Bermudian with a Master’s degree was $70,767, for example, compared with $63,534 for their black counterpart.At the high school certificate level, wages for Bermudians stood at $66,132 and $53,923 respectively.Racism still influences earnings, said human resources consultant Doug Soares.“Obviously it is critically important that we tackle structural racism in employment and root out any discrimination, even if it is unconscious,” the partner of HR firm Expertise said. “That, I trust, is something that everyone can agree on.”However, he added: “Many people who comment on the wage gap often do so without proper consideration of the many factors that determine how much people are paid.”Mr Soares said the issue was at risk of being oversimplified, telling The Royal Gazette: “In my 20 years working in human resource management generally, and in compensation analysis specifically, I am certain that racial discrimination is a factor. But there are other factors such as occupational choice.”A mathematician who decides to become an actuary, Mr Soares noted, stands to make at least double what a teacher would earn.“Performance is another factor. For example, a highly productive accountant who leaves their public sector job to work in the private sector will earn a lot more because Government pays a fixed salary for the occupation whereas most companies in the private sector pay a salary plus a significant variable amount based on performance.”Continued Mr Soares: “The only factor I think is less significant than others nowadays is the choice of college or university.“There was a lot of discussion on this point in the 1990s but most degree holders today graduate from accredited schools and go on to get a professional designation. Professional designations tend to level the playing field because, for example, if you are disciplined and clever enough to pass the Chartered Accountant’s exams, employers tend to care less about which university you graduated from.”Even so, he said, choosing a school or occupation was inevitably tinged by “the consequence of our experiences and fears”.“It is important to note that one’s choices about which school to attend or what occupation to pursue is consciously or unconsciously influenced by the degree to which people have been impacted by our history of racial injustice,” he said.The statistics for income and education have generated often rancorous discussion online.Out of the seven categories of academic qualification for Bermuda’s working population, all show white workers earning ahead of black workers.One category bucked the trend: at the Doctorate level, the white median was $136,000, versus $114,316, but with foreign workers taken out of the numbers, the data show black Bermudians ahead in one area.According to the Department of Statistics, a black Bermudian took in a median wage of $111,000 at the Doctorate level — versus $100,286.Every other category, however, puts white Bermudians ahead.For Melvin Alick, a former branch chairman of the Progressive Labour Party, the legacy of white privilege and structural racism was an issue best tackled by policy.Looking back on 2007’s Workplace Equity Bill, which failed to gain political traction, Mr Alick said the Island was ready to revisit it.Five years on, he said, “it would probably have a much better chance of bringing some real equity and policy solutions for addressing this disparity”.“We’re probably ready for it now. At the time, we weren’t. With the economy the way it is now, it’s a more relevant time.”Mr Alick bemoaned the reluctance of many whites to talk the issue through.Pointing to the example of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he said: “Unless we deal with things as they were, we’re not going to get to the grassroots.“What we have in Bermuda is almost a culture of denial. We’ve got to understand how things evolved in this country: the formation of the oligarchy, and the evolution of the workers’ movement, all the way back to how the slavery economy distributed wealth.”Added Mr Alick: “The bottom line is, who owns what in Bermuda, and how did they get it? That’s where we have to start.”Following reconciliation, he said, “we could deal with the issues, and then let the chips fall where they may. But we don’t want to deal with the truth of what really happened when we became so prosperous.“We have a mentality, especially with the white community, that we don’t really want to discuss it. And that’s what’s killing us. Meanwhile you have children in Bermuda who are digging up the truth about their history by themselves and finding it very disturbing.“You have some parts of Bermuda where the white community not only owns everything but has the best of everything. In other parts you have black communities that could be described as barely subsisting. But this is one of the most prosperous countries in the world.”A permanent resident of Barbados, he said he had witnessed firsthand the benefits of its policies for “creating ownership at the national level”.“They have a policy to make Bajans real partners with international business, for example,” he said. “We have a free-for-all economy here in Bermuda that has favoured one segment of the community.”He said power in Bermuda was decided by “ownership of the economy — and that’s the bottom line”.“Black Bermudians are not significant owners of the economy, in terms of real asset value, while the business community has primarily been dominated by the white community,” Mr Alick continued. “Until we can get significant black ownership, the issue will remain the same.”He said: “Policy should be a factor there, as opposed to leaving it up to one’s own conscience. We don’t necessarily have to legislate, but there could be enough impetus so that people could see that the issue has been addressed, and that we must deal with balance.”