سؤال قراءة ستيب محلول — فهم التفاصيل (تدريب 5217)

(1) An affirmative action program is a plan designed to increase the number of minority employees at all levels within an organization. Employers with federal contracts of more than $50,000 per year must have written affirmative action plans. The objective of such programs is to ensure that minorities are represented within the organization in approximately the same proportion as in the surrounding community. If 25 percent of the electricians in a geographic area in which a company is located are African-Americans, then approximately 25 percent of the electricians it employs also should be African-Americans. (2) Unfortunately, affirmative action programs have been plagued by two problems. The first involves quotas. In the beginning, many firms pledged to recruit and hire a certain number of minority members by a specific date. To achieve this goal, they were forced to consider only minority applicants for job openings. However, the courts have ruled that such quotas are unconstitutional even though their purpose is commendable. They are, in fact a form of discrimination called reverse discrimination. (3) The second problem is that although most such programs have been reasonably successful, not all businesspeople are in favor of affirmative action programs. Managers not committed to these programs can «play the game» and still discriminate against workers. To help solve this problem, Congress created a government agency with the power to investigate complaints of employment discrimination and sue firms that practice it. (4) The threat of legal action has persuaded some corporations to amend their hiring and promotional policies, but the discrepancy between men's and women's salaries still exists. For more than 50 years, women have consistently earned only about 77 cents for each dollar earned by men.