Minorities in the Labor Force - Minorities And The Federal Government

Traditionally, white men have held most of the higher-level positions in the federal government. Along with cabinet members, who are selected by the president, these high-level officials wield the power in federal government. This holds true for many agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

TABLE 4.9 Occupational employment in private industry by race, ethnicity, sex, and by industry, 2003 Adapted from "Table 1. Occupational Employment in Private Industry by Race/Ethnic Group/Sex and by Industry, United States, 2003," in Job Patterns for Minorities and Women in Private Industry, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, May 2005, http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/jobpat/2003/national.html (accessed January 5, 2006)

TABLE 4.9
Occupational employment in private industry by race, ethnicity, sex, and by industry, 2003
[All industries (193972 units)]
Racial/ethnic group and sex	Total employment	Number employed
		Officials & managers	Professionals	Technicians	Sales workers	Office & clerical workers	Craft workers	Operatives	Laborers	Service workers
SOURCE: Adapted from "Table 1. Occupational Employment in Private Industry by Race/Ethnic Group/Sex and by Industry, United States, 2003," in Job Patterns for Minorities and Women in Private Industry, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, May 2005, http://www.eeoc.gov/stats/jobpat/2003/national.html (accessed January 5, 2006)
	Occupational distribution
All employees	100.0	10.8	17.0	6.1	12.6	14.2	7.3	12.1	7.7	12.2
Male	100.0	13.5	15.4	6.1	10.7	5.6	12.2	17.0	9.7	9.8
Female	100.0	8.0	18.7	6.0	14.7	23.6	2.0	6.8	5.5	14.7
White	100.0	13.1	19.3	6.4	13.1	14.0	7.9	11.0	5.7	9.4
Male	100.0	16.4	17.5	6.5	11.3	5.2	13.3	15.7	7.1	7.0
Female	100.0	9.5	21.3	6.3	15.2	23.8	2.0	5.8	4.1	12.0
Minority	100.0	5.6	11.6	5.2	11.4	14.8	5.8	14.6	12.4	18.6
Male	100.0	6.5	10.2	5.1	9.2	6.8	9.6	19.9	16.1	16.7
Female	100.0	4.6	13.0	5.4	13.7	23.0	1.9	9.1	8.6	20.7
Black	100.0	5.1	8.8	5.3	12.0	17.5	5.1	15.2	10.3	20.7
Male	100.0	6.0	6.5	4.6	10.0	7.8	9.2	22.7	14.9	18.4
Female	100.0	4.5	10.7	5.9	13.6	25.5	1.8	9.0	6.4	22.7
Hispanic	100.0	4.9	6.3	3.9	11.4	12.7	7.3	16.0	18.0	19.6
Male	100.0	5.4	5.2	4.0	8.7	5.8	11.1	20.6	21.1	18.0
Female	100.0	4.1	7.7	3.8	14.9	21.9	2.1	10.0	13.8	21.7
Asian/Pacific Islander	100.0	8.3	32.5	7.9	9.4	12.0	3.8	9.6	5.7	10.8
Male	100.0	10.3	33.2	8.8	8.1	6.9	5.6	11.2	6.3	9.6
Female	100.0	6.2	31.8	6.9	10.8	17.4	1.8	8.0	5.0	12.1
Amind/Alaskan Native	100.0	7.3	11.5	6.2	14.6	13.6	9.1	14.3	9.5	14.1
Male	100.0	8.8	10.5	6.3	10.9	6.0	15.0	19.5	11.7	11.3
Female	100.0	5.6	12.6	6.1	18.6	21.9	2.5	8.5	7.1	17.1

The Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program Report for fiscal year 2004 (May 2005, http://www.opm.gov/feorpreports/2004/feorp2004.pdf) finds that minorities were overrepresented in the government workforce with one exception: Hispanics were significantly under-represented in federal jobs. However, minorities are underrepresented at the senior pay grades. For example, African-Americans made up 17.4% of the federal workforce but were overrepresented at the lowest pay grades. In September 2004 more than one in four (27.6%) employees in the lowest positions—General Schedule and Related (GSR) grades one through four—were African-American. Another 25.8% of GSR five through eight, 15.7% of GSR nine through twelve, 10.9% of GSR thirteen through fifteen, and just 6.9% of the senior pay levels were African-American. Asians and Pacific Islanders were also underrepresented at the senior pay levels, representing 5.9% of GSR one-through-four pay levels and 2.6% of the senior pay level. Hispanics represented 8.8% of GSR one-through-four pay levels and 3.4% of senior pay levels. Native Americans represented 5% of the GSR one-through-four pay levels and 0.8% of the senior pay levels.

A major contributor to this situation is time. It takes about twenty years to rise to the top of any organization. In the early 1980s few people of color held any management positions in the federal government. Another possible factor is partiality or discrimination. Some lower-level government employees believe that they have been deprived of promotions because of their gender or race and have filed bias complaints.