New Scientist - USA (2020-03-21)

working longer and have had more time

to come across such situations. But the

trend didn’t hold with 55 to 64-year-olds,

only 30 per cent of whom felt they had been

discriminated against. It seems, then, that

those people aged 45 to 54 are experiencing

more discrimination than other age groups,

for reasons that aren’t clear.

Ultimately, however, it seems that

discrimination isn’t what the majority

of people in STEM are most worried about.

Whether or not they had experienced

discrimination, it didn’t significantly affect

their priorities when moving jobs. For both

those who had and those who hadn’t, an

increase in pay and interesting work were

their top proirities.

same-sex marriage was banned in Northern

Ireland, whereas it was legalised in Great

Britain more than five years ago. The survey

also revealed which employment sectors

appear to have the most discrimination

(see “Sector differences”, above).

When it comes to company size, you might

think that when there are more employees, it

is easier to get away with bad behaviour. That

isn’t necessarily so. One manager in a small

medical devices firm told us: “I realised that

there are no or not enough checks to prevent

any kind of discrimination. You just have to

rely on the personality and moral compass of

the individual and that is not enough.” In fact,

the survey found no sure correlation between

company size and discrimination.

What about younger people? Only 17 per

cent of 20 to 24-year-olds surveyed said they

had experienced discrimination. In contrast,

43 per cent of 45 to 54-year-old respondents

said they had. It is easy to assume this can

be explained by age: older people have been

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UK respondents (rounded to the nearest whole percentage) New Scientist Jobs
SOURCE: NEW SCIENTIST/SRG/2020 SALARY SURVEY

36%

14%

11%

4%

2%

33%

Gender

Race

Age

Disability

Sexuality

Other

We asked those respondents who had experienced
discrimination the principal characteristic for which
they had been unfairly treated

ON WHAT GROUNDS?

UK respondents (rounded to nearest whole number)

SOURCE: NEW SCIENTIST/SRG/2020 SALARY SURVEY

35%

32%

30%

30%

27%

26%

The percentage of respondents that had experienced

discrimination in different employment sectors

University/education

Medical/clinical

Industry

Independent charity or foundation

Government laboratory or agency

Contract research organisation

SECTOR DIFFERENCES