Subject: Article Critique- Discrimination in a low-wage labor market-A Field Experiment
The memo will discuss topics concerning a scholarly article called Discrimination in a low-wage labor market-Field Experiment. The thesis will aid the reader identify the key points the author is trying to make, the methods and evidence section will describe the experimental procedure chosen and the results discovered. The contribution to literature section includes personal thoughts and contributions to the article while the recommendations section discusses the importance of the research and its implications in the future.
Thesis
In the article Discrimination in a Low-Wage Labor Market-Field Experiment , the authors Bart Bonikowski, Devah Pager and Bruce Western delve into the issue of racial discrimination in the low wage labor market of New York. Discrimination in this case refers to whether a black or Latino applicant would get the same number of call backs or job offers after submitting a resume as whites would. The authors seek to identify (1) whether the discrimination is based on race or qualifications (2) the extent of discrimination in these markets. The information provided by the authors provides broad insight to the discrimination in the labor market and its implications on the economy. The research provided by the authors is quite extensive therefore it can help invoke a course of action from stakeholders that can help alleviate the problems for the individuals concerned.
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Methods
During the experiment process, the authors used the large-scale audit approach and the comparison correspondence test. The main method used to compare is primarily differentiating the remuneration of whites and minorities by managing human capital attributes. The large scale audit method utilizes matched groups of applicants who apply for real jobs and the response from employers is recorded. The test subjects are given similar resumes and are matched according to characteristics such as physical appearance, age, interpersonal skills and education. The authors used the methods to study race and criminal background as a determining factor that shapes racial perceptions among employers.
The New York City Hiring Discrimination Study sent a team of matched groups to apply for 340 entry-level opportunities in the City of New York in a period of nine months in the year 2004. The test subjects were eloquent, cleaned up young men between the ages of 22 and 26. Most of these subjects has received college education and were enlisted in New York City. The testers were paired according to their eloquence, interaction skills, and physical features. The test subjects were given fake resumes that reflected same educational qualifications, work experience and residence. The resume format and fonts differed among testers with each specific resume utilized by a specific race group. The testers were included in a common training behavior to ensure that they behaved the same in job interviews.
The authors created two teams; the first team incorporated Latino, white and black individuals. To establish comparison, the Latino testers were United States citizens of Puerto Rican descent and communicated in clear English with no accents. The first team of testers were used to set test basic racial order with the white tester establishing a standard for measuring differentiation in racial discrimination. The other team compares black and Latino test subjects with a white test subject with a record of criminal activity. The criminal activity was indicated on the resume by listing work experience at a corrections facility and a parole officer as call reference. For the two teams of testers, the authors sampled employers who provided entry-level positions that required a high school degree and little or no work experience.
The authors ensured full scope of coverage for entry level job market by including listings from the Daily News, Village Voice, New York Times, Craiglist and New York Post. The response is measured by positive response from employers in terms of job offer, call back or second interview. The authors recorded the response by setting up mailboxes for each test subject. Most tests have indicated that utilization of pair comparisons to indicate the relationship of observations from the same pair. In the case of the authors’ test where three testers of different races were sent to one employer, they had a matched triplet and information from each tester that could cause an inference about a difference between the two.
One of the problems with the matching method is the fact that it is prone to bias. Factors such as race are not assigned experimentally therefore researchers depend on the successful choosing and matching to create audit teams in which the necessary attributes of testers are similar. Poor matching of testers might create inaccurate evidence that may be a result of tester characteristics. The low-wage labor market study depends on in-person audits therefore matching of testers is a main concern. Another key concern is the fact that the researcher cannot determine the real reason an employer does not choose a tester. The employer might not select the applicant due to the applicant’s characteristics or any other reason that might not be measured in the experiment. For instance a black tester might go into an application expecting poor treatment from the employer therefore he may present as defensive in interaction or nervous. The nature of interactions may establish a pre-determined prophesy in which the tester receives insufficient outcomes for reasons not related to his race. However the authors indicate that they did not find any evidence that tester’s interpersonal skills are associated with discrimination.
Evidence
The evidence of the field experiment was measured by employer responses in terms of an offer or recall according to the race of each applicant. The first team evaluates the outcome of equally qualified Latino, black and white applicants. There was a positive feedback rate for each race. In the first experiment, applications were dispatched to 171 employers, the white test subject got a recall or offer 31 percent of the time in comparison to a positive response rate of 25.2 percent for Latino test subjects and 15.2 percent for black test subjects. The whites received the most positive feedback followed closely by Latinos and blacks (Pager et al. 2009 p. 785). The ratio between blacks and whites is substantially large at 2.04. The second team of testers involved a white felon tested against blacks and Latinos with clean records. In this second experiment, whites test subject with a record of criminal activity attained positive feedback in 17.2 percent of 169 job applications in comparison to 15.4 percent of Latinos and 13.0 percent for blacks. The white tester in this experiment does better than blacks and Latinos with no criminal background. As with the first team, Latinos applicants were more desirable to black applicants but the comparison is not quite significant. Comparing a white subject with criminal record activity with a black or Latino applicant with no record of criminal activity creates a clear measure of the impacts of race on employer resolutions. Individuals with criminal records are less privileged in the labor market compared to job-seekers with no criminal records. The stigma of being a felon seems to be no less than that of majorities. Incarceration rates among black men might explain employers’ obliviousness between white felons and blacks. Overcoming the negative assumptions for a candidate with alluring attributes necessitates negotiation of hurdles that a white job seeker might not experience.
The strength of the experiment is the fact that the authors successfully determine that race plays a huge role in hiring decisions by providing evidence that white applicants had an added advantage over blacks and Latinos with the same qualifications (Pager et al. 2009 p. 785). Therefore the evidence answers the main thesis question of whether individuals are hired according to race or qualifications. The other strength is the fact that the evidence shows the extent of racial discrimination in the low wage labor market by creating a comparison of the feedback from a white felon applicant and black and Latino applicants. The white felon still had an added advantage over the black and Latino applicants with clean records. The weakness of the experiment lies in the matching method; failure to conduct an effective matching process for the testers might produce bias results. Overall the authors attempted to support their thesis through findings that provided credible information.
Contribution to Literature
Racial discrimination in the low-wage labor market is a key issue. Although racial discrimination is prohibited in most workplaces, most individuals bear unconscious racial bias towards certain races and might treat them discriminatively (Neumark 2018 p. 799). The effective heuristic bias affects hiring decisions for employers; this is a situation where an interviewer makes decisions based on a one-dimensional characteristic such as color of the skin or unconscious racial bias rather than factors such as problem-solving skills (Gaddis 2014 p. 1451). Additionally, most hiring individuals base their decisions on stereotypes about people’s competencies. An employer might deem a white applicant more qualified than black or Latino applicant even though they present with the same qualifications.
Recommendations and Implications
The findings of this research will have implications on the organizations in the private sector since most public organizations have laws regulating against discrimination. Although private sector organizations have laws they may not be as strict as those in government regulated organizations. Although the society is becoming more aware and tolerant there is still work to be done. Racial discrimination in the low-wage labor market is evident in the lives of Latinos and blacks in the United States (Ashenfelter & Rees 2015). The research by the authors could lead to further studies on discrimination in the low-wage market and also creates awareness of how racial discrimination occurs and its extent in the labor market.
References
Ashenfelter, O., & Rees, A. (2015). Discrimination in labor markets (Vol. 1243). Princeton University Press.
Gaddis, S. M. (2014). Discrimination in the credential society: An audit study of race and college selectivity in the labor market. Social Forces , 93 (4), 1451-1479.
Neumark, D. (2018). Experimental research on labor market discrimination. Journal of Economic Literature , 56 (3), 799-866.
Pager, D., Bonikowski, B., & Western, B. (2009). Discrimination in a low-wage labor market: A field experiment. American sociological review , 74 (5), 777-799.
