For a business owner, taking steps such as implementing a zero tolerance policy or hiring a business management consultant to oversee diversity initiatives is a good start to protecting employees from workplace discrimination. Even still, it’s important to know the full extent to which institutional bias is ingrained in America.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult finding accurate data regarding workplace discrimination. For every case that gets reported, many more are not. This article will primarily be looking at the findings of the Glassdoor 2019 Diversity and Inclusion Study conducted by The Harris Poll, one of the longest running research and consulting firms in America.
This study surveyed over 1,100 employed adults in the U.S., as well as workers in the UK, Germany, and France. It found that 61% of U.S. employees say they have either experienced or witnessed workplace discrimination, the highest percentage of any of the surveyed countries.
Information regarding the most common forms of workplace discrimination can be found below.
Age: 45%
Though one of the less discussed forms of workplace discrimination, ageism is nonetheless the most common, with 45% of U.S. respondents having personally experienced or witnessed age-discriminatory behavior. According to AARP, the three main areas where age discrimination takes place are 1. recruitment and hiring, 2. on-the-job bias, and 3. termination. In short, older applicants are less likely to be hired in the first place, receive more harassment and fewer opportunities when employed, and are disproportionately targeted during layoffs.
Race: 42%
At 42%, race and gender are tied for the second most common form of workplace discrimination. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), 16% of race-related discrimination complaints center on or feature incidents of harassment. The EEOC defines harassment as a form of discriminatory behavior that includes but is not limited to: “offensive jokes, slurs, epithets or name-calling, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs, offensive objects or pictures, and interference with work performance.”
Gender: 42%
As mentioned above, gender and race are tied as the second most common form of workplace discrimination, with 42% of survey respondents reporting having experiencing or witnessing such instances. A Forbes article noted that the most prominent form of gender-based discrimination is the wage gap between men and women, wherein the latter receive on average $0.79 for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. The article also pointed to studies revealing that women are additionally short-changed when it comes to bonuses and retirement benefits.
Sexuality: 33%
Though the least common of the four types of workplace discrimination identified by the Glassdoor survey, the prevalence sexual orientation-related discrimination is still high. At 33%, more than one in every four respondents surveyed has witnessed or experienced such discrimination. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is especially problematic because, as reported by USA Today, out of 50 states only 21 have laws on the books explicitly banning workplace bias based on orientation and gender identity. With an estimated 11 million U.S. citizens identifying as LGBTQ, that means more than half have no state protections.
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