The scouring of systematic and individual racism from the institutions of America is unfortunately an ongoing process. And racism in the workplace, where personal boundaries are different, is an especially ugly issue. While it feels that progress on this issue is being made in recent years, its clear from the below information that some groups are more exposed to and aware of the lingering racism that remain in the system. We asked employees to answer the question, “Have you ever experiences racism in the workplace?”
This information comes from the latest reading of an ongoing study by Comparably. Over 10,000 employees responded to the study.
Notably more men than women say they’ve never experienced racism in the workplace. While this particular question does not deal directly with sexism, it’s possible that women are more used to being discriminated against regardless of their ethnicity, and are therefore more aware of a culture of discrimination than men, who have classically “had it easy” in U.S. workplace culture.
As expected, non-Caucasian ethnic groups report more encounters with racism at work than Caucasians do. 49% of African-Americans say they have been discriminated against based on their race. Hispanic/Latinos didn’t encounter quite as much racism, but still reported more than the overall scores for all women – a score that was already considerably lower than the score for all male employees. Asian/Pacific Islanders reported racism at just above the average for all female employees. 80% of Caucasian men and women say they’ve never experienced any racism in the workplace, which is a figure even higher than the percentage for all male employees.
Responses varied more widely than usual when age of respondent was taken into consideration. 70% of Gen Z respondents (age 18-24) haven’t encountered racism during their relatively short time as part of the workforce. That number immediately jumps to 74% of respondents aged 26-30 and then to 76% for the 31-35 group, before dipping again slightly for respondents aged 36-45. This slightly mystifying progression implies either that racism has gotten worse in the workplace in recent years during Gen Z’s entry into the workforce, or that the Gen Z group has a different – or more sensitive – definition of racism than previous age groups.
Broadly speaking, the more educated you are, the less experience you have of being the victim of racism at work. 35% of those with only a high school diploma say they’ve been treated differently because of their racial identity. Those with “some college” or an Associate’s Degree reported at only a slightly lower level. But only 22-25% of those holding a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree say racism has been an issue for them at work. The unavoidable conclusion here is that racism – at least the overt kind – is more common among less educated workforces.
In 12 out of 15 departments surveyed, more women than men say they have experienced racism at work. The opposite is true only in the Admin, HR, and Marketing departments. This again underlines the fact that, according to this data, more women than men in general have observed racism – towards themselves or others – in the workplace. One possible reason for this, as absurd as it seems to parse information like that, is that women can’t always tell whether their mistreatment at work is due to their sex or their race. It’s also possible that, due to their traditionally unequal place in the American workforce, others feel more comfortable expressing taboo racially-motivated comments in their presence.
Latest reading as of January 30.
