We Can’t Stop Fighting Workplace Bias or Promoting Inclusion

America’s economy works best when it works for everyone. Our country has seen significant and meaningful progress since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the nation’s laws against employment discrimination.

Yet bias in workplaces still today limits employment opportunities for many and hampers America’s economic progress. In fiscal year 2023, the EEOC returned more than $665 million to workers who suffered discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

Legal enforcement of workplace protections is necessary but hardly sufficient to fully overcome the nation’s long history of discrimination and other forms of inequality. Advancing equal opportunity also takes proactive efforts to prevent discrimination in the first place and to create a workplace climate that values opportunity for all and a place where bigotry can’t flourish.

It’s essential both to ensure accountability when discrimination occurs and to recognize there is no substitute for proactively preventing it from occurring in the first place. The US Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that federal employment laws incentivize voluntary efforts to provide workplace equality.

President Lyndon Johnson remarked on signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that it “relies first on voluntary compliance” and “provides for the national authority to step in only when others cannot or will not do the job,” urging “all of us” to go to work to “eliminate the last vestiges of injustice.”

Employer efforts to support talented employees of all backgrounds and cultivate a culture of respect not only help to fully achieve equal employment opportunity, but also to deliver broad benefits for our communities and economy. Employers that adopt well-crafted programs to systematically remove barriers to equal opportunity and ensure recruitment of workers from all demographic groups help to identify the best-qualified workers and create workplace climates that discourage discrimination.

Moreover, employees who know that their institution values respect and inclusion are less likely to engage in harassment on the job. Organizations that actively focus on helping all employees thrive are more likely to identify discriminatory barriers early, before they become entrenched or lead to litigation.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2023 college admissions decision, there has been significant confusion about such efforts to promote equal opportunity. The ruling didn’t, however, prohibit or even address employer efforts to foster diverse and inclusive workforces, engage the talents of qualified workers from underserved communities, or remedy the effects of past employment discrimination. Federal civil rights laws have always permitted—and in some cases required—such actions, provided that employers don’t condition employment decisions on prohibited characteristics like race or sex.

We can’t afford to be distracted from the urgent need to address inequality based on race, sex, class, and other illegitimate bases. In an increasingly global economy and an increasingly fractured nation, America must fully engage the talents of all its people for the country to prosper. Now is the time to make good on the nation’s promise of equal rights and equal opportunity.

Take, for example, high-tech jobs. An EEOC report shows severe underemployment of women in the high-tech workforce has barely budged in a generation—lingering around 22% in both 2005 and 2022. There also have been only incremental increases in the representation of Black and Hispanic workers in that time, with Black employees making up just 7.4% and Hispanics 9.9% of the high-tech workforce in 2022.

While EEOC’s 2024 data aren’t yet available, it’s encouraging that some tech companies have recognized the need to understand and design products for all persons of all backgrounds, and are working to recruit qualified workers from all communities.

Instead of abandoning efforts to foster fair and inclusive workplaces, organizations should re-assess, and if needed, recalibrate to ensure they are consistent with civil rights laws and sensitive to needs of all workers. While some now see efforts to implement lawful, effective practices to promote inclusive workplaces as an impossible task that will lead to criticism from all sides, the opposite is true. The most effective way to protect an organization’s brand and limit litigation risk is to take deliberate, thoughtful action to ensure inclusive practices.

Employers can, and many do, proactively support employees from under-represented groups while also fostering the success of all employees. Workplace fairness has never been a zero-sum game.

More importantly, these intentional, voluntary efforts are essential to creating an America where everyone has an opportunity to thrive and contribute to our success as a nation. Ceasing those efforts before they can succeed will limit our progress as a society and hamper the competitiveness of US businesses.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Charlotte A. Burrows was designated chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Biden and is serving in her third term. She previously worked on civil rights litigation and policy at the Department of Justice and as a staffer on Capitol Hill.

Write for Us: Author Guidelines