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The Fairness Factor
A recent survey indicates that blacks are less likely than other groups to perceive their workplaces as fair. Meanwhile, race-based discrimination charges filed with the EEOC are at a 10-year high. What's going on?
A recent analysis of employee survey data reveals that black, Asian and Hispanic employees are just as engaged at work as their white counterparts. Other results were less reassuring, however. The analysis showed a gap in perceptions of workplace fairness, development opportunities and advancement opportunities between black employees and their colleagues of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, according to Sirota Survey Intelligence, which reviewed more than 800,000 employee responses at 40 U.S. companies in various industries over the last five years. Among management employees, six in 10 (61 percent) blacks said their workplaces were fair, compared to 75 percent of whites, 74 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of Asians. Non-management employees from all racial groups tended to rate their workplaces less favorably on fairness than management-level employees, but, again, black workers had the least favorable perception, with 59 percent rating their workplaces as fair, compared to 66 percent of whites, 67 percent of Hispanics and 64 percent of Asians. Black managers also perceived the fewest opportunities for development, with 78 percent of black managers feeling favorably about such opportunities at their organizations vs. 84 percent of whites and Asians, and 83 percent of Hispanics. The findings may be a legacy of the overt and widespread discrimination blacks historically faced in the workplace, says Douglas Klein, president of Purchase, N.Y.-based Sirota. "One has to recognize that the history of employment for blacks is very different from that of any other minority, and perceptions can be slow to change," he says. The relative scarcity of blacks in senior-level management positions may be a factor underlying the less-favorable views by black managers of development opportunities, says Klein. "They may perceive that there's a lack of training and development opportunities to help them advance to such positions," he says. The fact that Asian managers perceived their workplaces as less fair than other racial groups except black managers suggests that they, too, are battling stereotypes, says Klein. "They fight certain unjustified stereotypes of passivity and an 'unwillingness to socialize with others' that they feel are totally unwarranted," he says. Government data also indicate that discrimination in the workplace -- whether it's real or perceived -- is not going away. Charges of race-based discrimination filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have actually risen during the past 10 years, from 1997 -- when 29,199 such charges were filed -- to 2008, when 33,937 charges were filed. However, two legal experts say the growing number of charges may reflect a more aggressive stance by the EEOC rather than an actual rise in workplace discrimination. "The EEOC's eRACE [Eradicating Racism And Colorism from Employment] initiative is aggressively seeking out systemic discrimination arising from things like background checks and credit checks made during the hiring process," says Lynn Kappelman, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw in Boston. Because such screening may have a disparate impact on minorities, the EEOC and its state counterparts have been putting them under greater scrutiny and have been encouraging jobseekers who feel they were adversely impacted to come forward, she says. Chuck Baldwin, a partner and employment attorney at Ogletree Deakins in Indianapolis, says that, in addition to a more assertive EEOC, changes made to parts of the federal Civil Rights Act over the years have encouraged plaintiffs' lawyers to file more employee-discrimination claims. "Section 1981, which was previously limited to the enforcement of contracts, was revised under the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to permit employees to sue for monetary damages," he says. "So over the years, plaintiffs' lawyers have realized that litigating race-based discrimination claims can bring in more money." Sirota's Klein agrees that the EEOC's initiatives may be a factor in the rise in race-based charges, but adds that it's important to remember that actual discrimination is hardly a thing of the past, particularly in certain regions and economic sectors. "Things are far better than in the past, but if you go down South, if you visit old-school manufacturing or labor environments where the foreman still calls all the shots, you'll see that there are still places in this country that clearly aren't where they need to be in terms of treating all people fairly," he says.
December 17, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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