The Gallop Center on Black Voices polled more than 8,000 employees to identify which race/ethnicity is suffering from the highest rates of workplace discrimination. Surveyed employees were a mix of black, white, and Hispanic workers, who fell across a wide age, gender, and income spectrum.
Survey data shows that black and Hispanic workers experience significantly more instances of workplace discrimination than their white colleagues. In the past year, 24% of both black and Hispanic employees felt discriminated against at work. In contrast, 15% of white employees felt discriminated against.
Age plays a significant factor in reported discrimination
While discrimination rates remained consistent across employees of all income levels, an employee’s age correlated with their relative likelihood of experiencing discrimination.
Young black workers (under 40) were almost twice as likely to experience workplace discrimination as older black workers (40 and older). Young Hispanic workers also reported nearly twice the rate of workplace discrimination (31%) as older Hispanic workers (17%).
Black workers most commonly face race-based discrimination
Black respondents who said that they experienced workplace discrimination overwhelmingly reported that the discrimination was race-based (75%). In comparison, 61% of Hispanic and 42% of white respondents said that the discrimination they faced was race-based.
A look at the larger picture
No one should have to suffer discrimination at work, whether that discrimination is based on race, ethnicity, gender, sex, religion, or other personal attributes.
However, this survey data exposes an alarming trend in the overall American workforce: a quarter of black and Hispanic workers have felt discriminated against in just the past 12 months. This highlights that many of our industries, companies, and offices fail to foster a culture of inclusivity.
Our nation has a lot of work to do to bring down these numbers so that instances of discrimination can become a rare exception, and not a norm, for many minority workers.