Two-tier system favours white graduates
A two-tier recruitment system is operating in the UK’s top multinational firms, according to new research from Bath’s department of education.
Academics found that the most senior jobs, which attract the highest salaries, are most likely to go to white male graduates who attended elite universities while recruitment at lower entry levels is more diverse.
The study, published in the British Journal of Sociology, drew on data from the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education survey. It followed 3,260 graduates recruited by 31 top companies, including those working for City firms, such as Goldman Sachs, Barclays Bank, PricewaterhouseCoopers and HSBC.
The findings suggest a two-tiered process of graduate recruitment into elite multinational firms.
In terms of top multinational companies’ overall recruitment, ethnic minority graduates were more likely to be recruited and women were just as likely to be hired as men as well as increasing numbers of recruits from newer universities.
Yet a very different story emerges when it comes to recruitment into top jobs for these firms, the ones attracting the highest starting salaries.
Compared to white graduates, most other ethnic groups are less likely to be earning the highest entry-level salaries at a top firm – especially Asian/Asian British - Bangladeshi (over 10% less likely), Black/Back-British Caribbean (nearly 14% less likely).
Meanwhile women are 4% less likely to have a higher starting salary than men upon entry to a top multinational firm.