[craigthedeac]

ojc02:
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From Craig:

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The need for affirmative action in the workplace:
“People of color and women are more likely to be unemployed, employed at lower wages, and hold jobs with a lower base pay.” (ACLU)

• The average woman loses approximately $523,000 in wages over a lifetime due to disparities. (ACLU)

The National Urban Institute showed unfair hiring practices in a study where it sent equally qualified applicants on interviews for entry-level jobs. The applicants were “coached to have similar levels of enthusiasm and ‘articulateness.’ The young white men received 45% more job offers than their African American co-testers; whites were offered the job 52% more often than Latino ‘applicants.’”

Keep in mind that using affirmative action to help correct these disparities doesn’t mean just letting any under-represented person have a job or get accepted at a school. A person’s race or gender is merely one factor that ought to be given weight. It should be viewed as allowing these groups, who are otherwise unfairly evaluated on the whole, to get their foot in the door and achieve an even playing field. Diversity in the workplace and in schools is a legitimate state interest.

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Craig has a point here although he doesn't really make what I think is a key point: These disparities indicate the existence of agency problems in a lot of these companies. It is the responsibility of those in the hiring department of these companies to make decisions that maximize shareholder wealth, they are clearly not doing so.

However, it is the responsibility of the owners to ensure that their hiring department hires the right people at the right price. It is their responsibility and they are being punished by not making as much money as they could. The costs are internalized, the incentives are correct.

There is no inherent value to "diversity" (for most companies), but the lack of it probably implies a lack of hiring efficiency.

Companies would benefit from an increased focus on being meritocratic. The idea of legislated affirmative action at private firms makes me sick.

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I'm not sure I follow you. Are you implying that companies ought to seek out these groups of applicants and pay them their "market price" rather than their true value in order to please their shareholders?

If so, I disagree, but it probably gets into a capitalism debate which is a whole different box of marbles.