03/14/2024

Why Class Bias May be Sabotaging Your DE&I Efforts

Classism poses a significant threat to inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts are often concentrated on biases surrounding gender, race and sexual identity, pushing other lines of discrimination to the side — but employers may be missing an essential piece of what creates inequity in their workplace: Class.

Class can be defined by various factors, namely one's income, education, status, family and social network. While an employee's class shouldn't matter in the workplace, that sentiment doesn't stop classism from being part of an organization's hierarchy, underlined Shane Lloyd, chief diversity officer at Baker Tilly, an advisory, tax and assurance firm.

"Classism, as a construct, is the systematic assignment of worth based on real or perceived social class," said Lloyd. "For example, as someone who's a member of the C-suite, I am oftentimes afforded a degree of influence compared to a rank-and-file team member. Now, certainly, we need hierarchies to operate organizations, but good ideas can come from any member."

Please select this link to read the complete article from Employee Benefit News.