Discrimination Starts at Top, Execs Say

Top-Down Discrimination: So much for diversity initiatives—a new survey concludes that racial discrimination in the workplace is as bad now as it was a decade ago. According to job site TheLadders.com, 81 percent of executives have witnessed discriminatory actions in their companies. More than half (54 percent) say there’s been no improvement during the past 10 years. Race-based discrimination accounted for about 42 percent of the incidents, followed closely by gender bias (38 percent) and ageism (31 percent). In a twist, discrimination based on sexual orientation is only about 9 percent. Surprisingly, 56 percent of executives claim they have been victims of discrimination during the interview process. CEOs are being blamed for tolerating these prejudices, with 77 percent of executives saying discriminations starts at the top.