Black History Month—A Time to Assess

Black History Month is a time to celebrate our black employees but also gives employers the opportunity to examine barriers black employees face in career advancement. Black employees are leaving their jobs at high rates because they aren't being treated fairly or given the opportunities and tools to thrive at work, so they are finding their own ways to pave their success—at other employers.
 
Exodus of Black Employees
Federal data shows that black workers have higher unemployment rates and fewer employment prospects compared with their white counterparts. And just six Black CEOs led Fortune 500 companies in 2022. McKinsey & Co. released a report in 2021 indicating that black workers:

• Experience less fairness and fewer chances to succeed.
• Earn less than $30,000 a year more often than their peers do.
• Are overrepresented in low-wage occupations, such as front-line jobs.

 
Black employees are more likely than white workers to actively search for a new job or plan to search in the next few months, according to a 2022 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). They also continue to experience racism at work, including hair discrimination—although states have begun enacting laws to prohibit hair-related bias in the workplace.

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