A new study found stark differences in the treatment of white and Black job applicants at fine-dining restaurants in Seattle

• A new study on hiring in Seattle's fine-dining restaurants is the latest research to describe blatant discrimination affecting nonwhite job seekers.
• The study paired two test "applicants" with matching work experience and qualifications, but one was white and the other was Black or Latinx.
• In one case described in the study, a restaurant manager encouraged a Black server applicant to apply at another restaurant but asked the white applicant if she could start as a host immediately.
• The study's findings are similar to research by experts like the Harvard sociologist David Pedulla, who told Insider he had found that Black applicants are consistently judged more harshly than their white counterparts.

A new study details the systemic racism in hiring at restaurants that affects nonwhite people's chance of getting hired compared with white applicants.

Researchers with the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and the Seattle Office for Civil Rights paired white and Black or Latinx "applicants" with matching qualifications to test hiring at more than 100 fine-dining restaurants in Seattle.

The study, titled "The Great Service Divide," contains anecdotes illustrating the stark contrast in opportunities given to white and Black applicants.

In one case, the manager of a restaurant encouraged a Black server applicant to apply at another restaurant but asked the white applicant if she could start as a host immediately.

In another instance, a white tester was offered a server position after an interview, whereas the Black tester was asked if he was willing to work as a barista, which paid less than the server job.

In another, a staff member of a restaurant asked a Black applicant to apply online but assured the white applicant that they would give their résumé directly to the general manager.

The study also found that roles in both the "front of house" (the dining room) and the "back of house" (the kitchen) were "highly segregated by race and ethnicity."

The study said that in interviews and focus groups, restaurant workers described experiencing discrimination in interactions with managers, customers, and coworkers. Some said it stopped them from pursuing higher-level positions.

The Seattle study is just the latest in research detailing disparities that white and nonwhite people face in applying for jobs and getting hired.

David Pedulla, a Harvard sociologist who examined biases and discrimination in hiring processes in his latest book, "Making the Cut: Hiring Decisions, Bias, and the Consequences of Nonstandard, Mismatched, and Precarious Employment," told Insider that Black job seekers may face harsher judgment than their white counterparts.

"African-American applicants with seamless employment history actually receive similar callback rates as white applicants who have been unemployed for a year," Pedulla told Insider.

In his research, Pedulla conducted a similar "audit study" where he sent out fictitious job applications, manipulated to show names associated with different racial backgrounds, for real opportunities in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. He found that his results matched up with other data on the consistently lower success rates of Black job applicants.

A 2017 Harvard Business Review study found that since 1990, white applicants had averaged 36% more callbacks than Black applicants with identical résumés. The study said the level of discrimination Black applicants face when seeking employment had not significantly declined over the past 25 years.

Discrimination in hiring remains a critical concern as the US unemployment rate has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. It was 11.1 % in June, leaving a long road of recovery ahead.

"It's going to be really important for social scientists to document and track forms of racial discrimination," Pedulla said.

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