Affirmative Action

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

This is not true OP.

The only companies required to adhere to Affirmative Action are those that do business with government as a contractor. All employers don't participate in AA.

Also, IMO most people are not knowledgeable about what AA is. It is not about hiring people in the workplace (schools do things differently based on the state and policies in place at those institutions) but in the workplace companies who have to participate in AA are only required to "consider" a diverse pool of applicants and that is it.

If what Dorian stated above was correct, black Americans would not have UE rates twice the rate of whites in America because even all the inept of the race would be hired....

The reality is that govt contractors may technically only be required to consider a diverse pool, but there is hell to pay if that consideration doesn't result in the proper quota of minorities hired at every level of the organization. Govt. contractors have to report their hiring results annually and justify any gaps in the representation of minorities in their workforce, along with plans on how they are going to correct those gaps. AA is totally about quotas.

The only saving grace for employers is that the quotas requirements are for their hiring area. If you recruit nationally for a certain level or type position then it needs to reflect the national mix. If you hire locally, then you only need to reflect the local mix. That is how blacks end up with much higher unemployment because the urban ghettos are beyond the hiring area for most positions for most govt contractors. Also, AA only applies to govt contractors, and govts themselves. It is also how blacks are grossly over-represented (relative to the overall demographics of the country) at govt entities. Blacks represent a disproportionate amount of the local demographics for those urban govt entities.

[jade408]

And black people started moving to DC to work for the government because the govt was the only type of job you could get as an educated black person.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Biker53

The reality is that govt contractors may technically only be required to consider a diverse pool, but there is hell to pay if that consideration doesn't result in the proper quota of minorities hired at every level of the organization. Govt. contractors have to report their hiring results annually and justify any gaps in the representation of minorities in their workforce, along with plans on how they are going to correct those gaps. AA is totally about quotas.

The only saving grace for employers is that the quotas requirements are for their hiring area. If you recruit nationally for a certain level or type position then it needs to reflect the national mix. If you hire locally, then you only need to reflect the local mix. That is how blacks end up with much higher unemployment because the urban ghettos are beyond the hiring area for most positions for most govt contractors. Also, AA only applies to govt contractors, and govts themselves. It is also how blacks are grossly over-represented (relative to the overall demographics of the country) at govt entities. Blacks represent a disproportionate amount of the local demographics for those urban govt entities.

Since minorities are paying hard earned tax money to these contractors, contractors SHOULD be hiring a high proportion of minorities. That's a damn good thing.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by desertdetroiter

Since minorities are paying hard earned tax money to these contractors, contractors SHOULD be hiring a high proportion of minorities. That's a damn good thing.

I agree but not higher than they are represented in the hiring area, or you'd have a reverse discrimination scenario.

The actual AA stuff is more complicated than has been discussed here though being it is done by the relative skill level for the position. Also, the business doesn't necessarily get to define their hiring area. For example, where I worked was a small town setting 30 to 45 minutes outside of a moderate sized city that had a large black and Hispanic underclass. Virtually none of our lower level/entry level administrative, production, and warehouse employees came from outside our county, which was maybe 95% white. As an AA employer we advertised in that city and were listed with the State Unemployment Office, but people were not going to drive 30-45 minutes each way for jobs that paid $12 per hour, and that's assuming they had vehicles. Not everyone in the city does, yet there was not any public transportation going 30 - 40 miles out to where we were. None of that mattered to the govt though as they had that city in our hiring zone and so we were forever having to explain the situation.

The blacks and Hispanics that we were able to hire were almost exclusively at the professional and executive level, and none of them were never viewed as AA hires being they weren't hired for those reasons. They were hired based on their qualifications, and they thrived based on their own merits, same as everyone else.

It was just those lower & entry level positions that were difficult to recruit for.

I would add that AA is not just for minorities. It is for women too. With women we never had any problem. They were fully represented at every level of the organization.