Race at Work: The realities of Race and Criminal Record in NYC

Devah Pager and Bruce Western did some great work in 2003 using job testers in NYC.  They used identical testers who were different only by race: black, white and Hispanic.   They then added the variable of a criminal record with a felony conviction.

The testers were choose for similar background,  appearance, and verbal skills.  The testers were also coached to use similar self presentation styles.  They went to 1470 interviews. They were then matched to fictitious resumes with high school diplomas and solid work experience

The results were indicative of significant racial descrimination.

23% of whites were offered a job or a call back
19% of Hispanics a similar positive response
and 13% of black got a good response

The report is here.