U.S. Workers Might Be Souring on DEI

Skip to comments.

Posted on 11/20/2024 1:28:37 PM PST by nickcarraway

According to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, U.S. workers are feeling “slightly more negative” about DEI efforts compared to last year.

Corporate DEI efforts have come under fire in the U.S., and particularly since the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in June 2023. Now, more workers are starting to wonder: Is DEI worthwhile?

Indeed, the share of U.S. workers who said that focusing on DEI efforts at work is “a good thing” dropped from 56 percent in February 2023 to 52 percent in October 2024, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, the share who said it was “a bad thing” grew from 16 percent to 21 percent in the same timeframe.

The biggest drivers of the shift: Republicans and men, who have “only become more negative since last year,” according to the report.

Forty-two percent of “Republican and Republican-leaning workers” say focusing on DEI is “a bad thing” — a notable jump from 30 percent in 2023. For male workers, the share who characterized DEI as “a bad thing” jumped from 23 to 29 percent.

This Health Food Founder Would Rather Go Broad Than Niche

Workers generally are also more likely to believe that their company is paying “too much attention” to increasing DEI, up from 14 percent in 2023 to 19 percent this year.

Here, “White, Black and Hispanic workers” were all “slightly more likely” to agree with this assessment, according to the report. Eight percent of Black workers, for instance, said their companies paid DEI “too much attention,” compared with 3 percent in 2023.

And both Republicans and Democrats were more likely to agree that DEI is getting too much attention than in 2023, though Republicans are still more likely to do so.

This shift in worker perspectives — though slight overall — comes as numerous companies seem to reconsider their commitments to DEI and the sweeping pledges many made in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 murder.

This year, job postings for DEI-related roles have fallen, according to multiple reports, and some companies have held back on their DEI investments this year, as Inc. previously reported. Plus, according to another report, more than half of companies have adjusted their DEI terminology in the past year.

A likely factor here: the slew of anti-DEI lawsuits waged against companies for their DEI efforts in the last year or so. The Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging — a research center at New York University’s School of Law — is currently tracking more than 100 anti-DEI cases, many of which pertain to DEI efforts in businesses.

Some of those, like the lawsuit against fintech platform Hello Alice’s grant program, have been dismissed. Others have settled, like in the case of the Fearless Fund, the venture capital firm sued by Edward Blum’s American Alliance for Equal Rights.

But that pressure hasn’t stopped companies from pursuing these efforts entirely. In fact, according to a survey from New York City-based executive search firm Bridge Partners this year, while more companies are now holding back on DEI investments, still nearly three and four company leaders say they “plan to increase their commitment to DEI within the next two years.”

And to the more than half of U.S. workers — 52 percent — who still believe increasing DEI at work is a “good thing,” that could be welcome.

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.

Is there evidence that workers ever wanted DEI? I doubt even minority workers ever supported it.

1 posted on 11/20/2024 1:28:37 PM PST by nickcarraway

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson