I Wear Pants;983159 wrote:So there are not companies out there that you could take the same applicant through and in one case omit the age or whatever and another case input it and have a different hiring result?
I'm not saying all companies necessarily do this but I guarantee you there are a bunch that do.
Ummm, the whole purpose is to collect statistics to defend against lawsuits -i .e. 20% of our applicants were women and 22% of those we interviewed were women. In fact, companies that have been reprimanded in the past is EXACTLY how state/federal regulators evaluate compliance (i.e. the number of women interviewed for mgmt positions, hired, etc...).
Plus, you're talking about information that is generally easily observable in an interview - you can spot a wedding ring, guestimate age based on experience/job history (when applicants haven't put the date of their college degree), and obviously if someone is male/female or white/black.
If one intends to discriminate in their hiring practices, there are far more subtle ways to accomplish it than asking someone the question directly.