US ad agencies face legal action over racism claims

by John Tylee, Campaign 13-Jan-09, 14:35

LONDON - US agencies are reeling over the threat of a class action suit prompted by allegations that they are institutionally racist.

African Americans are not only paid less than their white counterparts but are significantly under-represented in the ad industry, a new study has claimed.

It was commissioned by the civil rights law firm Mehri & Skalet, which has indicated it may join with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in a class action suit against the industry.

The study suggests that US agencies do not just have a diversity problem but operate "a culture in which deeply embedded racial bias, both conscious and unconscious, creates systematic barriers to inclusion".

It finds that black college graduates in advertising earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by white staffers.

Moreover, only 10 per cent of them are as likely to have a job with annual salary of more than $100,000.

The report also claims that agencies fall well short of the 9.6 per cent of black staff they should be employing to remain line with the ethnic breakdown of the US population.

Nancy Hill, the chief executive of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, said: "The numbers speak for themselves."

The US findings come as the IPA steps up its efforts to draw more people from ethnic minorities into the UK industry. Currently just over 2 per cent of agency staff are Asian and 1.7 per cent are black.

However, IPA executives say the situation the US in very different to that of the UK, where agencies find it hard to attract talented people from ethnic minorities, particularly Asians, who are more attracted to medicine, the law and accountancy.

Comments

Trista Perez - 13/01/2009

What a disturbing article! As an African American woman working in the industry, I can attest to the lack of minorities in the agencies. What I wasn't aware of was the salary discrepancy. If minority employees are performing the same work as their white co-workers, what could the excuse possibly be that they should be paid less? While I am against discrimination of any sort, I cannot say that a class action lawsuit is the best course of action here. What recruiting efforts are being made to draw minorities into the US advertising industry? From my own experience, not once was it suggested to me that this was an industry I could make a career in- I happened to have a mentor (who coincidentally was British) that helped me find the perfect niche for myself. I will be following the progress of this controversy with the hopes of an outcome that benefits all.

Nicola Lucas - 14/01/2009

Why is there a picture of an army guy? I thought this article was about the army when I saw it. It's terrible that ethnic minority's are paid less from doing the same job. However this 9.6% quota that they SHOULD be employing is positive discrimination like all quotas such as these. People should be hired according to how well they can do the job not according to what race they are.