Race- and Class-Based Discrimination in the U.S. Labor Market

种族歧视仍然是美国劳动力市场平等的最大障碍之一。黑人男性收到求职面试回电的可能性仅为具有类似资历的白人男性的一半，他们的收入仅为白人男性收入中位数的70%。研究人员和政策制定者面临的挑战是理解雇主为什么歧视黑人求职者。为了解释这种歧视，社会学家通常会指出雇主的种族敌意和/或刻板印象。经常被忽视的是，美国黑人在求职时也遇到了微妙的阶级偏见。在美国，种族和社会阶层的概念深深地交织在一起。定性研究表明，雇主对美国黑人的负面期望往往是基于他们是下层阶级的假设；即他们获得物质和象征性资源的机会有限，如收入、教育和高文化。然而，种族歧视模式是否与基于阶级的歧视相交，并可能部分解释工作歧视，还有待证明。社会科学文献继续忽视了可能是美国种族不平等的一个关键来源。该项目旨在通过对推动美国就业中种族歧视的社会阶级偏见进行实地实验研究，来解决当前理论和研究中的这一差距。首先，它旨在衡量当求职者在简历中表明S的出身几乎相同(更高或更低)时，雇主回调率的种族差异是否会缩小。其次，它旨在衡量表明相似阶层背景的女性比男性在回调率方面的种族差异是否缩小到更大程度。第三，它旨在衡量回调率中的种族差异是否会因应聘者S简历中的高阶层或低阶层背景而变化。为了实现这些研究目标，首席调查员将对美国的就业歧视进行一项基于简历的计算机化审计研究，发送8,000份虚构的简历S和求职信，申请12个大城市的4,000个职位空缺。用人单位将每隔一天收到两份S的简历：一份表明申请人是黑人，另一份表明申请人是白人。S的两份简历都标志着相同的性别和相同的社会阶层出身：上层出身、下层阶级出身或对照出身(没有明确的阶级出身)。阶级来源的相似性将通过(1)课外活动和(2)大学奖项申请者简历中S名单中的相似之处来表示。然后，首席调查员将跟踪雇主对提交的简历S的回应，并根据这些回复，衡量白人和黑人申请者的雇主回复率如何根据简历S中包含的课堂信号而变化。

Racial discrimination remains one of the most formidable obstacles to labor market equality in the United States. Black men are only half as likely as white men with similar qualifications to receive a callback for a job interview and they earn just 70 percent of the median income of their white counterparts. The challenge for researchers and policymakers is to understand why employers discriminate against black job applicants. To account for this discrimination, sociologists typically point to racial animus and/or stereotyping on the part of employers. Often overlooked are the subtle forms of class bias also encountered by black Americans as they apply for jobs. In the U.S., conceptions of race and social class are deeply intertwined. Qualitative studies show employers' negative expectations for black Americans often are predicated on the assumption they are lower class; i.e., they have limited access to material and symbolic resources like income, education and high culture. However, whether patterns of racial discrimination intersect with class-based discrimination and may partially explained job discrimination is yet to be demonstrated. The social science literature continues to ignore what may be a key source of racial inequality in the U.S. This project aims to address this gap in current theory and research through a field-experimental study of the social class biases that drive racial discrimination in U.S. employment.This study has three specific research aims. First, it aims to measure whether the racial gap in rates of employer callback diminishes when job applicants signal near-identical (higher or lower) class origins in their résumés. Second, it aims to measure whether the racial gap in callback rates diminishes to a greater degree among women signaling a similar class origin than among men. Third, it aims to measure whether the racial gap in callback rates varies according to the higher- or lower-class origins signaled by applicants in their résumés. To address these research aims, the Principal Investigator will conduct a computerized, résumé-based audit study of employment discrimination in the United States, sending 8,000 fictitious résumés and cover letters to apply for 4,000 job openings in 12 major cities. Employers will be sent, a day apart, two résumés: one résumé signaling that the applicant is black and one résumé signaling that the applicant is white. Both résumés will signal the same gender and the same social-class origin: a higher-class origin, a lower-class origin, or a control origin (with no explicit class signal). Similarity in class origin will be signaled through likenesses in the (1) extracurricular activities and (2) college awards applicants list in their résumés. The Principal Investigator will then track employers' responses to the submitted résumés and, based on these replies, measure how rates of employer callback for white and black applicants vary according to the class signals included in their résumés.