People Like Us: #NameTheBias

Does what you’re called actually matter? Yes, says a powerful new campaign for UK workplace equality champions People Like Us, spotlighting the stark inequities in pay, workplace treatment, and job prospects linked to ethnically diverse names. Created by Copenhagen independent creative studio Worth Your While (creative director and partner is Aussie expat Tim Pashen), #NameTheBias exposes how hidden “name bias” in UK hiring practices impacts ethnic minorities’ earning potential before they even set foot in an interview, and is pushing for urgent government action on ethnicity pay gap reporting. Launched yesterday on Ethnicity Pay Gap Day (8 January 2025) – alongside a new survey by People Like Us and Censuswide – which shows alarming disparities in workplace treatment and pay transparency between white and ethnic minority workers in the UK – the campaign draws on research from the University of Oxford revealing that candidates with ethnic-minority names must submit 60% more job applications to secure a callback compared to white British applicants. With disparities unchanged since the 1960s, #NameTheBias aims to spark national conversation, educate policymakers, and push for a timeline for the introduction of mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting to address systemic inequalities in the workplace. The centrepiece of the multimedia campaign is a two-minute film, directed by award-winning filmmaker Naghmeh Pour through new—land, which poses the question: do names matter? Shakespeare may not have thought so when he penned the lines – “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet” in Romeo & Juliet – but the film shows us otherwise, as British Bangladeshi lyricist, Yasmin Ali, subverts the Bard’s age-old question with a bespoke spoken word piece. Starkly shot in black-and-white, the film captures a group of ethnic minority workers waiting at a bus stop while Ali lyrically describes the ripple effects of having the ‘wrong’ name on employment prospects and career progression. When the bus finally arrives, white commuters board first, the doors closing in their ethnic counterparts’ faces as a vivid visual metaphor. Drawing on her own minority ethnic background, Ali’s performance brings a blistering authenticity and emotional depth to the film, which concludes with the line: “My name might mean I’m paid less / But I know I’m worth more” – underlining the campaign’s call for urgent systemic reform. Bringing the cause to the heart of the government, the film is set to be screened at events at both the House of Lords and Houses of Parliament on 8th January, alongside a live poetry performance by Ali.