The Student Room Group

"SJW" are right on job discrimination.

I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

White Male privilege
I have come across countless CV's in which white men with barely 2 GCSE's were earning around 35-45k per annum. I could not believe my eyes. Although I must take into account that these men were old, so they were of a simpler less competitive generation, and also they worked at the same job for long periods of time and thus promotions are to be expected. I did not see this trend in POC applicants.

Sexism
- The average female applicant got paid less than men for pretty much the same work
- The average female applicant works harder than men imo, especially asian (women with islamic names) vs their male counterparts. I say they worked harder because their salaries were awful for pretty typical jobs. I came across women who worked for a company for 3 years and yet they would only be earning around 16k per annum. That means their entry salary could may been even worse.

Racism
I saw that my colleagues were far more lenient and patient with applicants with "white sounding" names, as opposed to asian/african names.

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Reply 1
Confirmation bias will show you that.
Thank you, it annoys me when people think this isn't a real thing.


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Original post by Truths
I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

White Male privilege
I have come across countless CV's in which white men with barely 2 GCSE's were earning around 35-45k per annum. I could not believe my eyes. Although I must take into account that these men were old, so they were of a simpler less competitive generation, and also they worked at the same job for long periods of time and thus promotions are to be expected. I did not see this trend in POC applicants.

Sexism
- The average female applicant got paid less than men for pretty much the same work
- The average female applicant works harder than men imo, especially asian (women with islamic names) vs their male counterparts. I say they worked harder because their salaries were awful for pretty typical jobs. I came across women who worked for a company for 3 years and yet they would only be earning around 16k per annum. That means their entry salary could may been even worse.

Racism
I saw that my colleagues were far more lenient and patient with applicants with "white sounding" names, as opposed to asian/african names.


Firstly, empirical 'evidence' proves nothing. So the fact that you've seen some well paid men without many qualifications doesn't prove anything. But lets suppose we can consider what you've seen as representative for arguments sake.

Equating number of qualifications with pay is daft, especially when you're considering people who entered work 20-odd years ago. They might not have many qualifications, but if they've got 20 years experience in the field and a proven track record, they'll be financially rewarded for this. Not to mention that by your line of reasoning, Richard Branson is an example of 'white male privilege' cause his qualifications are **** but he's worth billions.

The average woman is not paid less than the average man. The ONS figures were broad-brush; they added up all the money men and women earned and compared them. If you compare men and women doing the same job, with the same qualifications and experience, working the same hours, the 'pay gap' disappears. In fact, by all accounts, women under 35 (or so, the actual age varies across the 30s depending on whose study you believe) get paid more than men in the same job, all other things being equal.

Women do not work harder than men. The ONS figures showed very clearly that the average man works significantly more overtime than the average woman, which explains a lot of the 'pay gap' and also why men seem to populate the more high-powered positions in business and politics.

Again, I would suggest that your experiences aren't typical. Positive racial discrimination is rife at the moment; in most application processes, being black is enough to all but guarantee an interview. The BBC recently put out a job advertisement and specified they were looking for people from ethnic minorities.
Reply 4
Original post by perspectives
Thank you, it annoys me when people think this isn't a real thing.


Posted from TSR Mobile


I never looked into the gender wage gap properly because as a male it's not to affect me. Some people say they have proof that its real, some people say the proof is illegitimate. I don't have all the proof, but I think I've seen enough make up my mind. The disparities were blatant. To the point where I could guess the applicants race and gender just by seeing their wages compared to their job. Anytime I thought it was way to high it was a white/man, anytime I thought it was criminally low for the job, it was a woman.
so your a hr person. explains why you seem to lack the ability to think for yourself
Reply 6
Original post by Luke Kostanjsek
Positive racial discrimination is rife at the moment; in most application processes, being black is enough to all but guarantee an interview.


Lol you lost me there. A flat out lie.
Sounds like a rigorous academic study... :rolleyes:
Original post by Luke Kostanjsek
Positive racial discrimination is rife at the moment; in most application processes, being black is enough to all but guarantee an interview. The BBC recently put out a job advertisement and specified they were looking for people from ethnic minorities.


Yeah even though numerous research has proven that those with ethnic sounding names are less likely to be called in for job interviews and given jobs but of course black people are just tripping over all these jobs....
Maybe the BBC put out the advertisement because they accepted the fact that ethnic people were being unjustly rejected and wanted to give more of them a chance. Another example is universities giving more bursaries and scholarships to those of poorer and more difficult backgrounds - to give opportunities to everyone.
Original post by Truths
Lol you lost me there. A flat out lie.


Presuming we're talking about Britain, it most certainly is. There's a push for more ethnic minorities in pretty much every area of business and politics. Like I said, there was a recent BBC job advert which explicitly said they were looking to hire an ethnic minority.

You want another example? Diane Abbott. You tell me any white man would be a frontbench politician if they were as utterly useless as Diane Abbott. She is where she is for two reasons and two reasons only; her gender and her race. And comparing the Labour party and the Tories rather neatly proves quite how badly positive discrimination works.
Meanwhile, some actual statistics suggesting that it's actually men who work more hours:

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/time-spent-working-by-full-and-part-time-status-gender-and-location-in-2014.htm
Original post by Truths
I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

White Male privilege
I have come across countless CV's in which white men with barely 2 GCSE's were earning around 35-45k per annum. I could not believe my eyes. Although I must take into account that these men were old, so they were of a simpler less competitive generation, and also they worked at the same job for long periods of time and thus promotions are to be expected. I did not see this trend in POC applicants.

Sexism
- The average female applicant got paid less than men for pretty much the same work
- The average female applicant works harder than men imo, especially asian (women with islamic names) vs their male counterparts. I say they worked harder because their salaries were awful for pretty typical jobs qualifying the previous "work harder" with an irrelevant metric. I came across women who worked for a company for 3 years and yet they would only be earning around 16k per annum. That means their entry salary could may been even worse.

Racism
I saw that my colleagues were far more lenient and patient with applicants with "white sounding" names, as opposed to asian/african names.


Your passive, non committal and broad brush language suggests you know that your impressions don't warrant the conclusion your putting out.

(see bold. I hate this new show more thing)
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by WBrownx
Yeah even though numerous research has proven that those with ethnic sounding names are less likely to be called in for job interviews and given jobs but of course black people are just tripping over all these jobs....
Maybe the BBC put out the advertisement because they accepted the fact that ethnic people were being unjustly rejected and wanted to give more of them a chance. Another example is universities giving more bursaries and scholarships to those of poorer and more difficult backgrounds - to give opportunities to everyone.


Are any of these studies contemporary, and based in the UK? Because I've not seen any. I might well be wrong, but I've not seen any study which proved a racist element to employment in Britain in 2016.

Do you not see that that is the very definition of racism though? That is literally, explicitly discriminating against race.

You cannot conflate those two. Universities give bursaries to those from poorer backgrounds because otherwise they couldn't actually afford to go to university. And people from difficult backgrounds get help because someone from a difficult background has a legitimate explanation for not doing so well in exams, for instance.
Original post by Truths
I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

White Male privilege
I have come across countless CV's in which white men with barely 2 GCSE's were earning around 35-45k per annum. I could not believe my eyes. Although I must take into account that these men were old, so they were of a simpler less competitive generation, and also they worked at the same job for long periods of time and thus promotions are to be expected. I did not see this trend in POC applicants.

Well my mum has no A levels and still managed to reach a £70k salary. GCSEs mean nothing if they have other skills.

Original post by Truths
I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

Sexism
- The average female applicant got paid less than men for pretty much the same work
- The average female applicant works harder than men imo, especially asian (women with islamic names) vs their male counterparts. I say they worked harder because their salaries were awful for pretty typical jobs. I came across women who worked for a company for 3 years and yet they would only be earning around 16k per annum. That means their entry salary could may been even worse.
.

1) That is ********, if that were the case there would be thousands of women suing companies under the equal pay act.
2) You are literally relying on anecdotes here, plz stop. Also, citation needed

Original post by Truths


Racism
I saw that my colleagues were far more lenient and patient with applicants with "white sounding" names, as opposed to asian/african names.


Again, an anecdote. Your experience isn't indicative of a systemic problem. Also, I feel as if you may be leaving out some details, like the decorum of said minority applicants and other factors unrelated to CV.
Reply 14
Original post by Luke Kostanjsek
Presuming we're talking about Britain, it most certainly is. There's a push for more ethnic minorities in pretty much every area of business and politics. Like I said, there was a recent BBC job advert which explicitly said they were looking to hire an ethnic minority.


That's just the BBC. And I don't know the context of that job advert either. Maybe they want someone to play a black character for a show? Who knows?

Original post by Luke Kostanjsek
You want another example? Diane Abbott. You tell me any white man would be a frontbench politician if they were as utterly useless as Diane Abbott. She is where she is for two reasons and two reasons only; her gender and her race. And comparing the Labour party and the Tories rather neatly proves quite how badly positive discrimination works.


.... Lol it really doesn't. For one Dianne Abbott wasn't employed, she was elected. And for every Abbott there are 10 Boris Johnsons.
Reply 15
Original post by TercioOfParma
Well my mum has no A levels and still managed to reach a £70k salary. GCSEs mean nothing if they have other skills.


Lol that's white privilege or ya.


Original post by TercioOfParma
1) That is ********, if that were the case there would be thousands of women suing companies under the equal pay act.


There are?

Original post by TercioOfParma
2) You are literally relying on anecdotes here, plz stop. Also, citation needed

Again, an anecdote. Your experience isn't indicative of a systemic problem. Also, I feel as if you may be leaving out some details, like the decorum of said minority applicants and other factors unrelated to CV.


Yes i did forget to mention, applicants with Islamic names and EE/EU passport holders generally had bad decorum.

Women always had better applications than men, but their salaries were ridiculously low.
Original post by Truths
I work in a job where I have to process up to 50 resumés per day. And I saw a very prominent trend.

White Male privilege
I have come across countless CV's in which white men with barely 2 GCSE's were earning around 35-45k per annum. I could not believe my eyes. Although I must take into account that these men were old, so they were of a simpler less competitive generation, and also they worked at the same job for long periods of time and thus promotions are to be expected. I did not see this trend in POC applicants.

Sexism
- The average female applicant got paid less than men for pretty much the same work
- The average female applicant works harder than men imo, especially asian (women with islamic names) vs their male counterparts. I say they worked harder because their salaries were awful for pretty typical jobs. I came across women who worked for a company for 3 years and yet they would only be earning around 16k per annum. That means their entry salary could may been even worse.

Racism
I saw that my colleagues were far more lenient and patient with applicants with "white sounding" names, as opposed to asian/african names.


Worst evidence ever. Learn statistics
SJW's are right on a few things, people on here just focus on the negatives.
Original post by Truths
That's just the BBC. And I don't know the context of that job advert either. Maybe they want someone to play a black character for a show? Who knows?


Well, the advert made clear it was a management position. It's nothing to do with acting, the BBC just decided they need a black manager, apparently in the name of 'equality'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/03/bbc-criticised-by-mps-and-job-applicants-over-training-placement/

Original post by Truths
.... Lol it really doesn't. For one Dianne Abbott wasn't employed, she was elected. And for every Abbott there are 10 Boris Johnsons.


She was put into a Labour stronghold, where she was guaranteed to be voted in. And then she was handed positions within the Labour party because they wanted to show how liberal and equal they all were; all of which is notwithstanding that she's a terrible politician, and there are far more able people in the party.

You're very welcome to dislike Boris Johnson and his views, but the fact is he was voted in as Mayor of London at a time when Labour seemed to be on top in London. He was largely deemed a success in that post, and then went on to succeed in the Brexit referendum. He's now been made foreign secretary and he'll be judged on how well he does.

And I'd say it most certainly does prove how positive discrimination doesn't work. The Tories have resisted the urge to introduce women-only shortlists and ethnic minority shortlists as Labour do, instead awarding positions on merit alone. And funnily enough, whereas last year Labour said that there has to be a woman on the ballot in the name of equality, the Tories decided their leader should be one of two women entirely of their own accord. You compare the politicians in the Labour party and the Conservative party and it's ridiculous. The Tories have the most able women and the most able ethnic minorities, in more powerful positions, because they had to get their on merit. They didn't have any special provisions made, they were given the same chance as everyone else and worked their way to the top. And that is how it should be.
You see what you want to see.

You're also making your assessment using limited information, personal interpretation, anecdotal evidence, and potentially baseless assumptions. What other achievements did they have? Who were they working for? Did they negotiate their salaries? Etc.

It's a criminal offence to pay people less due to their gender or ethnicity. Employers know this. Instead of making immediate assumptions based on your own convictions and limited knowledge, admit that there could be many legitimate reasons for the discrepancies you are probably overinterpreting.

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