The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Equal Opportunity in Employment and Contracting - Fact Sheet

Americans for a Fair Chance - January 28, 2004

Equal opportunity programs are a tool to provide qualified individuals with equal access to opportunities. Equal opportunity programs, including recruitment, outreach, and training initiatives, have played a critical role in providing women and minorities with access to educational and professional opportunities they would otherwise have been denied despite their strong qualifications.

Although progress has been made over the last 30 years, ensuring equal opportunity for women and minorities remains an elusive goal. Equal opportunity programs have opened up job opportunities for qualified women and minorities to achieve high wages, advance in the workplace, and pursue nontraditional careers. However, continued use of equal opportunity in employment and contracting is necessary to help break down barriers to opportunity and ensure that all Americans have a fair chance to demonstrate their talents and abilities.

Equal opportunity in employment is an important tool to assist businesses in their efforts to build a global workforce.

Equal opportunity in employment includes: recruitment and outreach efforts to make sure that qualified women and minorities are in the talent pool when hiring decisions are made; training, mentoring, and workforce diversity initiatives to give all employees a fair chance at promotions; and management tools for measuring progress in opening opportunities such as flexible goals and timetables.

• Prior to the Supreme Court's ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, 65 Fortune 500 companies filed an amicus brief in favor of equal opportunity programs in higher education. The brief states, "The need for diversity in higher education is indeed compelling. Because our population is diverse, and because of the increasingly global reach of American business, the skills and training needed to succeed in business today demand exposure to widely diverse people, cultures, ideas and viewpoints." The brief cites several companies that have increased minority representation, including Microsoft Corporation, whose minority domestic workforce increased from 16.8 percent in 1997 to 25.6 percent in February 2003. (Brief for Amici Curiae, 65 Leading American Businesses in Support of Respondents, Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003)
• IBM's equal opportunity program highlights early identification of employees with high leadership potential, broadening career opportunities, and recruiting qualified employees from a diversity of backgrounds. Central to IBM's Executive Resources program is the idea that recruiting, training, and retaining talented minorities is the responsibility of IBM's management, from the CEO down through second line managers. From January 1996 to March 2001, the percentage of minority executives increased 170 percent -- from 117 to 316 officials. (IBM, June 2002)

The persistence of a wage gap for women and minority workers still remains in the American workplace.

• The average U.S. salary for professional positions is $69,447. American Indians in these positions earn less than average with $57,427. ("The Fact Book," U.S. Office of Professional Management, 2002)
• White college graduates earned 11 percent more than Asian college graduates. White high-school graduates earn 26 percent more than Asian high-school graduates. (National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, 2000)
• While the wage disparity has decreased since the passage of the 1963 Equal Pay Act, the statistics are still bleak. Today, Hispanic women still earn only 52 cents to every dollar earned by their white female counterparts, while Hispanic men earn only 63 cents to every dollar earned by their white male counterparts. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000)
• In 2001, the median annual earnings of white males with a four-year college degree was $55,307, while white women with the same educational attainment earned $40,192. Black women and Hispanic women with the same education credentials suffered from an even larger gap. Black women with equal college credentials earned $36,253, while Hispanic women with equal college credentials earned only $34,060. Also, on average, a woman with a master's degree makes $4,765 less than a man with a college degree. ("The Wage Gap by Education," National Committee on Pay Equity: 2001)
• In 2001, the average per capita income was $24,142 for white Americans and $15,269 for black Americans. ("Income in the United States: 2002," U.S. Census Bureau, Table 4, May 2002)

Equal opportunity programs have opened job opportunities for qualified women and minorities in the workplace. However, barriers to the highest levels of advancement still remain in the workplace and in non-traditional occupations.

• Since 1990, the white-collar employment gap between Hispanics and other groups has widened. From 1990 to 2000, the percentage of workers who were managers or professionals increased from 29 percent to 33 percent for whites, from 16 percent to 22 percent for blacks, and from 13 percent to 14 percent for Hispanics. (Population Reference Bureau, 2000)
• The U.S. Department of Labor's Glass Ceiling Commission report, released in March 1995, showed that while white men are only 43 percent of the Fortune 2000 workforce, they hold 95 percent of the senior management jobs. A report from Catalyst reveals that only 4.1 percent of the top-earnings officers in Fortune 500 companies are women. ("Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners of the Fortune 500," Catalyst, 2000)
• According to the 2000 Census, about 24 percent of the American Indian and Alaskan Native working population over the age of 16 was employed in management and professional related occupations, compared with almost 36 percent for whites. (Census 2000, Census 2000 Brief, August 2003)
• Today, women remain severely underrepresented in non-traditional occupations even though these jobs pay 20 to 30 percent more than traditionally female jobs. In 2002, for example, women were only 10.8 percent of all engineers; 1.4 percent of all auto mechanics; 1.8 percent of all carpenters; 30.6 percent of all doctors; and 29.2 percent of all lawyers. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 11, June 2003) )
• Although the number of women of color in Fortune 1000 companies has increased over the past decade, research shows that not even half (44 percent) of those women believe that they have an equal chance for promotion within their companies. ("Making the Case for Affirmative Action: Women of Color in Corporate America," Center for Women Policy Studies, 2001)

Some progress has been made in increasing the representation of women and minorities on boards of companies.

• Although the representation of African Americans sitting on corporate boards has climbed 4 percent since 1999, African-American men and women held just 388 of 11,500 Fortune 1000 board seats in 2002. (Microquest White Paper: Shattering The Glass Ceiling, 2002)
• While the number of corporate board seats occupied by Latinos increased in 2000, of the total places at Fortune 1000 boardroom tables, Latinos held only 1.7 percent. ("2001 Corporate Governance Study," Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility)

Equal opportunity programs include efforts to encourage the awarding of government contracts to qualified women and minority-owned businesses. While equal opportunity policies and programs have improved the success of women and minority-owned business enterprises, these businesses still receive only a fraction of total federal and state contracting dollars.

• Even though women-owned firms represent an estimated 28 percent of all businesses in the United States, their firms have obtained a mere 2.9 percent of the $235.4 billion in federal government contracts awarded in fiscal year 2002. This is still short of the five percent goal Congress established in 1994. (Center for Women’s Business Research; National Women’s Business Council, Federal Contracting with Women-Owned Businesses FY1997-FY2002, August 2003)
• Under the Small Business Administration’s Section 8(a) program, Asian American-owned businesses more than doubled their share of contracts in a ten-year period, getting 23.7 percent of contracts in 1996 compared to 10.5 percent of contracts in 1986. (Sharpe, Rochelle, "Asian-Americans Gain Sharply in Big Program of Affirmative Action," The Wall Street Journal, September 9, 1997)