New York Times
Study Finds Bias on the Job Is Still Common
By REED ABELSON
July 24, 2002
Women and minorities appear to be benefiting from greater
employment opportunities in the United States, but discrimination
remains a significant problem, according to a study to be released
today by two professors at the Rutgers School of Law in Newark. The
study, which extrapolated from federal data on about 200,000 large
and midsize employers, concludes that about two million workers
were affected by intentional discrimination in 1999. Roughly a
third of the employers studied appeared to have discriminated
against women or minorities in at least one job category, the
authors said
The study was based on information collected from employers by
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1990 through 1999
on so-called EEO-1 forms. The husband-and-wife team of Alfred W.
and Ruth G. Blumrosen then looked at how many women or minority
workers a company employed in different job categories compared
with how many were employed at other companies in the same industry
in the same geographic area.
They described a company as an intentional discriminator if its
employment of women or minorities was at least two standard
deviations from the average. Legally, companies are presumed to
discriminate if their employment numbers are far below the
norm.
About 22,000 employers were identified as "hard core"
discriminators. These companies employed below-average numbers of
women and minorities for 10 years and their hiring of women or
minorities was so far below the averages that there was only one
chance in a hundred that the discrimination occurred randomly.
The study also found rising employment for women and minorities,
suggesting significant progress in the workplace.
The names of the companies are confidential and were not known
to the researchers. The professors expect to make their study
available through a Web site, www.eeo1.com. The Blumrosens, who
were instrumental in setting up the E.E.O.C. in 1965, also say the
government should make more active use of their data.
The commission said it did not comment on draft reports.
