More formalization – less discrimination? A field experiment in the United Kingdom on how requirements in job advertisements affect bias in hiring

Previous research unequivocally shows the existence of discrimination in the labour market, mostly focusing on the disadvantages experienced by ethnic minorities as well as gender disparities. In order to investigate when discrimination occurs, we investigate the organizational context and draw on the idea that formalization of organizational practices acts as a closure mechanism. Specifically, we pay attention to the very first phase of the hiring process and investigate how the specification of job requirements in the job vacancy text impacts whether employers make biased hiring decisions based on group stereotypes derived from applicants’ ascriptive traits. We use data from the United Kingdom subset of the Growth, Equal opportunities, Migrations and Markets (GEMM) study. These data allow us to investigate discrimination on the basis of ascribed ethnicity and gender. Results from linear probability models show considerable discrimination against applicants signaling a nonwestern origin, as well as disadvantages experience by men of the UK majority population applying for jobs in female dominated occupations. Discrimination is, however, hardly mitigated by the formulation of formal job requirements in the vacancy. These results support the notion that employers in the UK base hiring decisions on a normative concept of applicants’ perceived employability rather than applicants’ formal qualifications.