Age and gender the biggest reasons for discrimination in the workplace
More than a third of adults in the U.K. report experiencing discrimination in the workplace, with age and gender being the biggest reasons, according to a new study by HR software provider CIPHR.
The survey found that 36% of UK adults feel they’ve been subject to discrimination in the workplace or when applying for a job, and 34% feel they’ve been turned down from a job due to discrimination of some kind.
Among the industries examined, individuals working in IT and Telecommunications were the among the ones more likely to say that they’ve experienced discrimination at work, with 60% reporting that they’ve been subject to workplace discrimination of some kind. People working in HR are the ones most likely to report experiencing discrimination of some kind, as 79% say they’ve been discriminated against either whilst in a workplace or when applying for a job.
The biggest reasons for discrimination in the workplace
The most common discriminating factor reported was age. 11% say they feel that their age has been a discriminating factor in the workplace and 5.7% believe they’ve suffered workplace discrimination based on their age.
The second most common reason reported for discrimination in the workplace is gender, with 5.3% saying they’ve experienced discrimination at work on the basis of their gender and 4.7% reporting that they’ve been refused a job due to gender discrimination.
This is closely followed by those who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill due to coronavirus. 4% of people in the UK say they feel they’ve been subject to some kind of workplace discrimination as a result of this, and 5.3% think they’ve been refused a job due to being in an at-risk category.
London is a discrimination hotspot for employees and job seekers
Despite its ethnic diversity, London is the city where people report the highest rates of workplace discrimination. A whopping 46% of adults say they’ve experienced work-related discrimination of some kind in the British capital.
London is followed by Brighton, Nottingham, Manchester and Birmingham, where over a third of people feel they’ve been discriminated against in the workplace or turned down from a job due to discrimination.
Students and HR professionals most likely to suffer discrimination
CIPHR also examined the impact that an individual’s employment status can potentially have on their likelihood of being discriminated against at previous, prospective or current workplaces.
The survey revealed that a staggering 66% of students in the UK say they’ve experienced discrimination either whilst in a job or when applying for one. 40% of individuals who are employed full time in the UK say they have experienced workplace discrimination of some kind, while 45% of part-time workers say they have experienced discrimination in relation to work.
To discover how many people in the UK feel they’ve been discriminated against in the workplace, CIPHR surveyed a representative sample of 2,000 adults.
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