France is a country of the european Union, where there is the most discrimination at work. This is the finding heartbreaking prepared by two economists in a note to the economic analysis Council (CAE) on the ways and means of combating such discrimination.

" When we ask the French if the discrimination based on skin color, ethnic origin or religion is widespread, nearly eight out of ten responded in the affirmative, compared to just six out of ten Europeans ", one can read in the note*, on the basis of the latest eurobarometer on discrimination. The conclusion is the same about women or LGBT people. But this feeling is confirmed by the facts. This is evident in the methods of "testing" by sending CV and letter of motivation of candidates, fictional with of course academic and professional equivalent, practiced for 20 years. "Women are discriminated against when they are at the age to have children, including access to positions of responsibility. Application equivalent, the probability for the French whites to be invited to a job interview is 50 to 100 % higher than that of the French minority non-white. It is much more than in other countries where testing on CV to measure the discrimination of ethnic origin have been carried out. Testings on CV also reveals that older workers have, on average, 50 % less likely than young people to be invited to a job interview. They also put a specific discrimination against muslims ", the authors write.

also Read "discrimination in employment exists," admits Julien Denormandie

"France emerges as one of the countries where the chances of being recalled by an employer when one has a name sounding african or north african are among the lowest," laments Stéphane Carcillo, at the head of the employment division of the OFCE. Such discrimination has not been limited only to hiring, but have repercussions on the whole of the professional career.

Even if it remains very difficult to quantify, the economic cost of this discrimination is not negligible. "In France, a modest reduction of differences in employment rates and wages between the populations discriminated against because of their gender and their ethnicity, and the other would bring in 7 per cent of GDP in 20 years, or 150 billion euros," remind the authors based on previous studies.

paternity leave extended

Faced with this situation, Stéphane Carcillo and Marie-Anne Valfort, OECD and Paris School of economics (PSE), and propose several remedies. The first concerns the equality of women and men. This is used to grant a paternity leave of 4 weeks for men. "Many studies have shown that fathers who take a leave of absence long enough to become more involved in the lives of their children and share a more egalitarian daily tasks, which enhances in turn the ability of women to get back to work ", justify.

Read also EXCLUSIVE. Marlène Schiappa : "women and men do not live in the same confinement ! "

with respect to seniors, the authors identified a deficit of vocational training, with only one senior on the eight benefits ! They propose, therefore, déplafonner the personal account of training for more than 45 years if they benefit from skills training or retraining, and to create a recruitment assistance for senior citizens unemployed for more than 12 months.

Give to the young people in the community with the means to be ambitious

For the " youth of the neighbourhood, largely from immigration, extra-european ", the two economists want to " strengthen the interventions on the school time aimed at improving the aspirations and the self-esteem of students ". Studies have shown that it could be effective to give them the means to be ambitious. "In France, an hour-long intervention of women in science in college increased by 30% the chances of girls to engage in a science ", they stress. A policy that must register in the school time to not take on time spent on homework. It would also be necessary to put the emphasis on " the acquisition of skills sociocomportementales ", which " generate a double dividend : they play a central role in the ability to learn, improving academic achievement, but they also promote success in the workplace, in a context where companies are increasingly demanding these skills."

These policies must be complemented by measures aimed at those who are at the origin of the discrimination. While France has a " legal arsenal provided in terms of the fight against discrimination, particularly in access to employment and during the professional career ", the victims do not know it. "However, it is vain to hope to combat discrimination if the threat of the sanction is legal remains non-credible ", consider the authors. Hence their proposal to launch a campaign of information for the general public about the illegality of discrimination on the labour market and on the possible remedies, including the hiring, or the mandatory training of the members of the economic and social Committee (SSC) of the union representatives and labour inspectors on ways to assist employees.

Measuring the situation of minority groups in companies

They also want to expand the training of recruiters to non-discrimination mandatory for companies with more than 300 employees since 2017, with a labeling law firms of training to ensure the quality of the courses offered after the completion of impact studies.

The training against discrimination should be provided from the school, where they are most effective. To achieve this, the authors propose to increase subsidies to associations that provide training to non-discrimination in the school environment and extra curricular, but in the condition assessments. They also want to "target the facilities that the school climate is more deleterious," which is assumed to generalize to the prior local surveys of school climate.

To go further, they also consider it indispensable " to be able to measure the situation of minority groups in the private and the public in order to honor the employers for which the degree of diversity and inclusion is exemplary − and encourage others to follow these examples."

Complete the surveys of the Insee

The prohibition of ethnic statistics would not be an obstacle. "Companies who wish to assess their level of diversity could invite their employees to respond to an inquiry on the basis of a standardised protocol defined by the public authorities. This investigation would be the creation of an index of diversity and inclusion. "

This index could, for example, " include the share of employees who have completed their school career in network of priority education and/or who live in the neighborhoods of the city policy (QPV) ", indirect way of measuring the diversity as " half of the students completing their school career in education as a priority do not always speak French at home (compared to 18 % for other students) ". Ultimately, this index would become mandatory for companies with more than 50 employees.

The authors call finally to measure the socio-economic situation of the discriminated groups in the overall population. "The best solution to be able to better study the situation of minority populations would be to introduce questions about the original felt, but also on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in major regular surveys of the Insee, as the are already several countries ", they consider.

We can see that the policy of fight against discrimination is a policy of long-term effort, which cannot be handled by a single measurement light.

*the Fight against discrimination on the labour market, Council of economic analysis, June 2020