Incidence of Employment Discrimination: Is Perception Reality?
Washington Post reports: “Fifteen percent of all workers say they have been discriminated against in their workplace during the past year, according to a new Gallup Organization poll.”
Washington Post: “The Bias Breakdown”
See also: “Workplace bias still prevalent, Gallup survey finds,” (SHRM) and “Almost One in Six Americans Report Discrimination at Workplace in Past Year” (Gallup press release).
Some key findings of the Gallup poll:
- While the overall discrimination rate is 15%, it varies considerably by race and gender. Women are more than twice as likely to report that they have been discriminated against in the past year (22%) as are men (9%).
- Asians and blacks are most likely to report experiences of discrimination (31% and 26%, respectively), while 18% of Hispanics and 12% of whites also report such incidents.
- The difference in discrimination among men and women is primarily among whites, with only 3% of white men, compared with 22% of white women, reporting such experiences.
- Black men and women report similar rates — 26% and 27%, respectively. 20% of Hispanic men and 15% of Hispanic women report incidents of discrimination.
- The two types of discrimination most frequently cited are gender (26%) and race/ethnicity (23%). In addition, 17% mentioned age discrimination, 9% cited disability, 4% sexual orientation, and 4% religion.
Oliver Willis blogs about this study: “According To The Right, This Is Imaginary”
Let’s start with this, Oliver: wouldn’t we all be better off without throwing around tired labels like “the right” — and “the left”?
Now, I’m not a member of “the right.” And I don’t think perceptions of discrimination are all imaginary.
No doubt some of the people who perceive discrimination actually were discriminated against. Oliver is right: discrimination has not been eliminated — perhaps never will be entirely.
But I’ve been on the defense side of way too many meritless workplace discrimination cases to believe that most people who perceive employment discrimination are accurately perceiving reality.
It’s interesting that whereas most age, sex, or race cases I’ve seen in my practice have involved termination, Gallop says: “The work areas that are most susceptible to discrimination are promotion and pay, cited by 33% and 29%, respectively, of people reporting incidents. Thirteen percent of such workers also cite discrimination in getting a job, and 11% mention the way they were treated at work.”
Even more interesting: the biggest employment discrimination law cases to hit the media this year have been the discrimination class actions focusing on — you guessed it — hiring, promotion, and pay. Coincidence — or have the perceptions found by Gallop been influenced by the media? You be the judge.
Sorry for ranting; it just irks me to hear a poll on perceptions of discrimination in employment reported as factual evidence of the actual incidence of such discrimination, using terms like “the overall discrimination rate is 15%.”
But I also don’t want to totally belittle perceptions. They have a reality of their own. They have negative HR consequences, such as poor morale, turnover, discrimination charges, and legal expenses. For this reason, the following findings of the study are also very interesting.
- Among employees rating their company’s diversity efforts in the upper third of all companies rated, 61% say they are extremely satisfied with their company. But among those rating their company’s diversity efforts in the middle or lower third, only 34% and 21%, respectively, are extremely satisfied with their company.
- Similarly, employees in companies ranked highly on diversity are much more likely to stay with their companies, and to recommend them to others, than employees who give lower ratings on diversity.
- This association is especially high when employees rate the commitment of their company head. Among employees who strongly agree their company head is committed to diversity, 65% would recommend their company to others. But among employees not as convinced their company head is committed to diversity, just 29% would recommend their company.
Photo credit: QwirkSilver via flickr
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