Discrimination in the Workplace? Nearly 36 Percent Say Yes

Discrimination is treating someone unfavorably due to a personal characteristic protected by law. Age, ethnicity, gender, and pregnancy are just some examples. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) protects workers from 12 types of discrimination, including sexual harassment and retaliation.

In March 2018, Blind reported that 31 percent of surveyed tech workers either witnessed or experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. In a more recent poll, 41 percent of tech workers claimed that their companies retaliated against employees. This month, a broader discrimination survey was conducted on the Blind app.

From July 27 through August 1, our users were asked the following question: “Have you witnessed or experienced discrimination at your current workplace?” More than 4,800 people from various companies responded and here’s how they answered: 64.20 percent replied “No” and 35.80 percent replied “Yes.”

When looking at the survey data by individual company, the numbers stay relatively close to the overall results. Our attention was focused on the 12 companies with the most survey answers and this is what we found:

• eBay has the highest percentage of “Yes” answers with 43.68 percent, while Facebook has the lowest with 21.93 percent.

• eBay, Cisco, Intel, Veritas, and Microsoft all have “Yes” percentages that are higher than the survey average of 35.80 percent.

• On the positive side, every company has a majority of “No” answers.

While our survey results are not definitive, it does give us a glimpse of what’s happening at some of today’s tech companies. While it’s good news that most of our survey participants have not seen or experienced discrimination, the numbers still leave room for improvement.

More discrimination discussions on Blind