Rutgers Law Professors Find Job Discrimination an Undeniable Reality
Feature Story by Menna Demessie - 8/8/2002
An important new study, 'The Reality of Intentional Job Discrimination in Metropolitan America ? 1999', was released by Al and Ruth Blumrosen of Rutgers Law School. It reports on the national picture of intentional job discrimination against African American, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific origin workers.The study specifies intentional employment discrimination by applying legal standards to the statistics of the race, sex and ethnic composition of large and medium size employers in the private sector. The basic legal principle is that when an establishment falls so far below the average utilization of minorities or women in the same labor market, industry and occupation that is not likely to be accidental, the law will presume intentional discrimination and require employers to justify their conduct.
"By marrying law with statistics," said Professor Alfred Blumrosen, "our study provides a useful roadmap for public discussion of the continuing need for affirmative action and for the implementation of equal employment policies." The husband and wife team of experts in the employment discrimination field conducted the study under a grant from the Ford Foundation.
The results show that black workers continue to suffer the most severe forms of employment discrimination with 15 percent of the black labor force affected. Hispanic employees, the second largest minority group, comprise of the second largest number of discriminated workers-- about half that of blacks. Asian Pacific and Native Americans, 8.4 and 5.1 percent respectively.
Although 8.4 million workers are in better paying, higher level jobs since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the since burgeoning labor force is subjected to intentional job discrimination that affected two million minority and female workers in 1999. Other conclusions the professors have drawn are as follows:
- Forty industries are "equal opportunity discriminators" responsible for at least seventy five percent of the intentional job discrimination against White Women, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians.
- The number of establishments engaging in apparent intentional job discrimination is so large ? 75,000 in the case of minorities, 60,000 in the case of women ? that law enforcement alone cannot possibly produce changes in employment practices necessary to reduce this level of discrimination. Continuation of affirmative action programs is essential.
While the report was based on data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the results are not representative of EEOC's findings.
"We actually have questions about the methodology of the study. The EEOC believes that job discrimination exists, but the study is only one tool of analysis and should not be used as an exclusive indicator of job discrimination," said EEOC spokesperson David Grinberg.
"While our study found that employment for women and minorities is increasing, it confirms that there remains substantial discrimination against minorities and women in every major metropolitan area in the country and in every occupational category," said Professor Alfred Blumrosen. "This unacceptably high level of intentional discrimination underscores the need for voluntary affirmative action and more effective law enforcement."
