preview

Discrimination In The Workplace Essay

Decent Essays

To what extent is discrimination an issue in today's workforce?

Racism is defined as prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. In the workforce, the issue of racism and discrimination has been brought to the center of conversations around the world. Companies claim to be “colorblind” and not hire somebody based on their race or gender, but the employment rates among minorities and women around the world is significantly lower than the majority in the given country. There is also the growing issue of minorities, such as blacks in america, making significantly less money than whites. This issue affects people all around the world who happen …show more content…

According to the United States Department of Labor(2016), the unemployment rates among black americans was a staggering 8.6, compared to 4.1 with white americans as of October of 2016. This gap, although much smaller compared to thirty five years ago, shows no trend of changing. Unemployment rates among the minority citizens of america has been consistently about double that of white america for an extremely long amount of time, six decades to be exact, according to Pew Research Center (2013). This is not only an issue in the United States, in the UK nearly half of young black males looking for a job are unemployed. This shows that discrimination is not just a factor in today’s labor force in the United States, but throughout the world as …show more content…

A woman today makes 77 cents to a man's dollar. That pay gap has held steady for the past decade. Then within minority groups the pay gap is even worse, African-American women earn 69 cents for every dollar paid to African-American men, and Latinas earn just 58 cents on the dollar compared to Latino men. This proves that women, although making great strides in the workplace, still make only a fraction of what their male counterparts earn. According to whitehouse.gov, a government sponsored website that provides national stats, women have made great progress in the workforce by accounting for nearly 47% employed people in the United States. Women hold roughly 50% of jobs even though they only make up 47% of the workforce compared to 31% in 1964 . This fact shows that women are more likely to work more than one job due to the massive wage gap between genders. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics (2015), white males make an average of about 9,000 dollars a year more compared to caucasian women, and 15,000 dollars more than african american women. These facts prove that there is racism and discrimination present in the workforce and that it is negatively impacting the working people of America and other countries around the

Get Access