Sociologists Bradley R. E. Wright (author of Christians are Hate-Filled Hypocrites . . . and Other Lies You’ve Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media – my review and Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of Our World – my review) and Michael Wallace published an article in the June 2014 edition of Christianity Today that overviews their recent research on religious discrimination in the job application process in the United States.
The project included the submission of 9,600 fake resume’s belonging to four recent college graduates for 2,400 open positions. The made up candidates had similar backgrounds with the exception of the name of a student group they belonged to during their college experience. The researchers then counted how many times employers responded to the resumes by phone, e-mail, or not at all. Rather than finding the candidates were treated equally, the researchers found significant evidence of religious discrimination. The control group (resume indicated a student group with no religious affiliation) received 20% more interest from employers than the other groups combined. Muslim resumes fared the worst, receiving 40% less interest that the control group.
So What?
This research should be front page news. It has been published in journals (Social Currents and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility), and is now summarized in Christianity Today. In writing this blog post, I hope to expand the reach of their research.
- Are you surprised to find such widespread religious discrimination in the resume review process in the United States today? Explain.
- What do you feel are steps that your local congregation can take to make a real difference in reducing religious discrimination in the workplace beginning with the application process?