You are not worth the risk: Lawful discrimination in hiring.
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Authors
Scholes, V.
Keywords
Discrimination
Ethics
Employment
Hiring
Statistical discrimination
Ethics
Employment
Hiring
Statistical discrimination
Description of form
Publisher
Rights
Rights holder
Issue Date
2014
Peer-reviewed status
Type
Article
Abstract
Increasing empirical research on productivity supports the use of statistical or ‘rational’
discrimination in hiring. The practice is legal for features of job applicants not covered by
human rights discrimination laws, such as being a smoker, residing in a particular neighbourhood
or being a particular height. The practice appears largely morally innocuous
under existing philosophical accounts of wrongful discrimination. This paper argues that
lawful statistical discrimination treats job applicants in a way that may be considered
degrading, and is likely to constrain people’s freedoms in relation to employment, thus
giving us reason for moral concern.
Citation
Scholes, V. (2014). You are not worth the risk: Lawful discrimination in hiring. RMM, 5, 13-29. Retrieved from http://www.rmm-journal.de/downloads/Article_Scholes.pdf.