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Many employers discriminate against minorities, women, study finds

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The study - titled "The Reality of Intentional Job Discrimination in Metropolitan America" - is believed to be the first of its kind, analyzing data on hiring practices given by employers to the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. It looks at data nationally and breaks it out by state, as well.

Minorities and women in the Dallas area were much more likely to face discrimination than those in Houston, according to the study. And, among the five metropolitan areas evaluated in Texas, chances of discrimination lessened substantially in Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth.

"We hadn't realized the persistence of discrimination or that so many people had been affected by it." said Ruth Blumrosen, who completed the study with her husband Alfred Blumrosen. The Ford Foundation provided a grant for the study.

Alfred Blumrosen added, "This unacceptably high level of intentional discrimination underscores the need for voluntary affirmative action and more effective law enforcement."

The data was analyzed by looking at how many women or minority workers a company employed in different job categories compared with average employment in the same industry, occupation and metropolitan area. The data were based on records that the EEOC requires companies with at least 50 employees to file under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The information includes the number of employees who are men and women, black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American.

Firms were deemed to be "hard-core" discriminators if over a period of years they were so far below the average that there was only a 1-in-a-100 chance that discrimination occurred by accident. Nationally, the study looked at about 200,000 employers.

At the EEOC in Washington, spokesman David B. Grinberg said the civil rights agency was studying the report.

"We agree that discrimination is a big problem," Grinberg said. But the use of the data sets, known as EEO1 data, has its limits, he said. It should not be the only information used to determine if a company is in compliance with civil rights and labor laws, he said. There are also other key factors used, such as applicant flow data and employer policies, the EEOC spokesman said.

The Blumrosens' roots at the EEOC are deep. They helped establish the agency in 1965 and were last consultants there in 2000. Ruth Blumrosen was once acting director of compliance; Alfred Blumrosen was the agency's first chief of conciliations

"The big recommendation is that the government should tell employers who are in jeopardy (of violating labor laws) where they stand," Alfred Blumrosen said. "An employer can then rectify the situation."

The names of the companies were confidential and not known to the research team, though they could see patterns by industries. Texas is similar to the national pattern of industries involved in what the researchers termed "intentional discrimination." The top five industries nationally for the number of impacted minority workers are eating and drinking establishments, grocery stores, hospitals, department stores and telephone communications.

The geographic distribution of the discrimination pinpointed Dallas as the metropolitan area with the most problems. Forty percent of cases involving blacks and white women and 45 percent of cases involving Asian Americas were clustered in Dallas. Cases involving Hispanics were evenly divided between Dallas and Houston.

In total, 70,000 minority workers in Texas were adversely affected by discrimination in more than 3,350 businesses, according to the study.

The high level of discriminatory patterns in Texas against Asian Americans was 41 percent and particularly noteworthy because this group has one of the country's highest educational levels. Nationally, the rate was high as well at 39 percent.

Hispanics in Texas looking for a job stood a chance of being discriminated against about 26 percent of the time; blacks, 31 percent of the time and white women, about 23 percent of the time.

The national study, with extrapolations for certain states can be found, at www.eeo1.com.

The EEOC has 51 offices in the United States.