EEOC says high tech workforce continues to lack diversity
By Daniel Wiessner
Sept 11 (Reuters) -The U.S. tech industry has made limited progress in diversifying its workforce over the last decade, with illegal discrimination likely playing a role in the underrepresentation of women, minorities, and older workers, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said on Wednesday.
The EEOC, which enforces federal laws barring workplace discrimination, released a 52-page report analyzing Census data and annual surveys employers submitted to the agency between 2014 and 2022. The commission found that while the U.S. population became more diverse and the tech industry grew rapidly over that time, a longstanding lack of diversity persisted.
The report looked not only at tech companies but at the broader "high tech workforce" of about 10.4 million people in 56 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics occupations. More than half of technology workers are employed by companies outside of the tech industry, according to the report.
The commission found that less than 23% of tech workers were women in 2022 even though they make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce. Black workers made up 7.4% and Hispanic workers about 10% of the high tech workforce, despite respectively comprising 11.6% and 18.7% of all American workers,and were even more underrepresented in management jobs, the EEOC said.
And the proportion of tech workers older than 40 declined from 55.9% in 2014 to 52.1% in 2022, falling below their representation in the overall U.S. workforce, according to the report.
The commission said the lack of diversity "has particularly significant social and economic implications given the high tech sector's rapid growth, the expanding importance of technology in our society, and the need to create technology to serve increasingly diverse communities."
EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows during a press conference announcing the findings said discrimination in the tech sector deprives workers of high-paying, stable jobs and the opportunity to advance their careers.
But it also raises the chances that new tech products, such as artificial intelligence software, will be designed without an understanding of the communities affected by them, she said.
“As you develop an algorithm ... it may be that you need a variety of perspectives to analyze that data,” said Burrows, who was appointed chair by Democratic President Joe Biden.
Burrows said the EEOC would use the data to inform its enforcement activities and to support existing diversity efforts by companies, but she did not say the agency would ratchet up its scrutiny of tech companies.
The commission has sued several tech companies in recent years. Video game maker Activision Blizzard in 2022 paid $18 million to settle the EEOC claim's of widespread bias against women, which the company denied. A major NASA spacecraft laboratory settled an age discrimination lawsuit by the commission for $10 million in 2020, and a year later Dell settled claims that it had paid a female IT analyst less than her male coworkers. Dell and the lab denied wrongdoing.
According to the report, tech companies in 2022 were more likely than other employers to be accused by workers of discrimination based on age, national origin and religion, and of violating laws requiring equal pay for equal work and limiting the ways companies can use employees' genetic information.
Workers who filed complaints with the EEOC against tech companies that year alleged age discrimination 19.8% of the time and equal pay violations in 2.1% of cases, for example, compared with 14.8% and 1% respectively for other companies, the commission said.
Read more:
Activision, EEOC win judge's approval of sex bias settlement
NASA lab settles EEOC age bias claims for $10 mln
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Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York
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إخلاء المسؤولية: تتيح كيانات XM Group خدمة تنفيذية فقط والدخول إلى منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت، مما يسمح للشخص بمشاهدة و/أو استخدام المحتوى المتاح على موقع الويب أو عن طريقه، وهذا المحتوى لا يراد به التغيير أو التوسع عن ذلك. يخضع هذا الدخول والاستخدام دائماً لما يلي: (1) الشروط والأحكام؛ (2) تحذيرات المخاطر؛ (3) إخلاء المسؤولية الكامل. لذلك يُقدم هذا المحتوى على أنه ليس أكثر من معلومات عامة. تحديداً، يرجى الانتباه إلى أن المحتوى المتاح على منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت ليس طلباً أو عرضاً لدخول أي معاملات في الأسواق المالية. التداول في أي سوق مالي به مخاطرة عالية برأس مالك.
جميع المواد المنشورة على منصة تداولنا مخصصة للأغراض التعليمية/المعلوماتية فقط ولا تحتوي - ولا ينبغي اعتبار أنها تحتوي - على نصائح أو توصيات مالية أو ضريبية أو تجارية، أو سجلاً لأسعار تداولنا، أو عرضاً أو طلباً لأي معاملة في أي صكوك مالية أو عروض ترويجية مالية لا داعي لها.
أي محتوى تابع للغير بالإضافة إلى المحتوى الذي أعدته XM، مثل الآراء، والأخبار، والأبحاث، والتحليلات والأسعار وغيرها من المعلومات أو روابط مواقع تابعة للغير وواردة في هذا الموقع تُقدم لك "كما هي"، كتعليق عام على السوق ولا تعتبر نصيحة استثمارية. يجب ألا يُفسر أي محتوى على أنه بحث استثماري، وأن تلاحظ وتقبل أن المحتوى غير مُعدٍ وفقاً للمتطلبات القانونية المصممة لتعزيز استقلالية البحث الاستثماري، وبالتالي، فهو بمثابة تواصل تسويقي بموجب القوانين واللوائح ذات الصلة. فضلاً تأكد من أنك قد قرأت وفهمت الإخطار بالبحوث الاستثمارية غير المستقلة والتحذير من مخاطر المعلومات السابقة، والذي يمكنك الاطلاع عليه هنا.
