A race descrimination in the labor market - Essay Example

Employment Discrimination Discrimination in the labor force is unfortunately much more prevalent than most people think. Job discrimination means that certain groups of individuals face barriers, both hidden and overt, to their active participation and inclusion in an employment setting. Insidious yet pervasive, job discrimination affects all types of people but is particularly harmful to certain group of individuals. Accordingly, Bertrand & Mullainathan, in their topical article “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?

” demonstrate that African-Americans face a series of obstacles when searching for employment and that discrimination in the labor force is real and apparent. Seeking to understand the particular employment challenges African-Americans face in the labor market, these scholars undertook an experiment which sought to discern whether or not potential employment candidates fared differently based upon race. The following is a brief overview of their study. Discrimination in the workforce affects people from all walks of life but as Bertrand & Mullainathan have shown, African-Americans face unique hurdles to their active employment in the United States today.

Accordingly, job applicants with stereotypically sounding African-American names received “far fewer callbacks for each resume they send out” (Bertrand & Mullainathan 1,011). Seeking to understand the employment challenges facing African-Americans in the US labor market, these scholars do in fact find evidence to support their research claim. Aiming to explore differential treatment based upon race, these scholars interpret their findings to show that yes, racism, either real or latent, is prevalent in American society and can influence hiring decisions.

Are the authors unbiased? No, but it is difficult to have researchers who are 100% unbiased and these scholars admit their initial assumptions prior to undertaking the research study. Bertrand & Mullainathan mention from the outset that “every measure of economic success reveals significant racial inequality in the U.S. labor market; compared to Whites, African-Americans are twice as likely to be unemployed and earn nearly 25% less when they are employed” (991). Thus, these scholars admit their preconceived notions and ideas and undertake a research study in order to understand whether such finding are warranted.

What could the authors have done better? While their study is interesting and certainly relevant, it is not completely scientific. Accordingly, it is based upon stereotypes and pre-conceived notions of certain names and the ethnic categories that these names belong to. Accordingly, “the resumes do not directly report race but suggest race through personal names” (997). This is a drawback that the authors readily admit. Does this paper provide evidence for wage discrimination in the U.S.?

While it does provide evidence for race based discrimination with respect to employment, the parameters of the study do not permit an analysis of income/wage discrimination. Job discrimination prevents the active inclusion of certain types of individuals in the work environment and is detrimental both to the diversity of an office as well as to the productivity of a particular work space. Seeking to address the major challenges minorities face with respect to discrimination at work, the government has legislated policies to protect certain groups from harmful work practices.

Accordingly, scholars Bertrand & Mullainathan have undertaken a study which demonstrates that job discrimination affects African-Americans and remains a real problem. Furthermore, job discrimination is unethical and ends up hurting both the individual as well as the company. It is wrong and must be tackled with vigor.works citedBertrand, Marianne & Sendhil Mullainathan. “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?” A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination.” The American Economic Review 94.4 (Sept. 2004): 991-1013.