Discrimination in business is a subtle, silent, and secretive thief that steals pride, income, productivity, hope. Discrimination costs the business firm, for when the pool of workers is arbitrarily limited a certain number of better workers is certain to be excluded. But discrimination costs the worker far more, in lost earnings, lost promotions, and lost opportunity.
Discrimination is, for the corporation, economically irrational, but it occurs.
And we know it costs. If every employer, every manager who practiced discrimination in promotion and hiring would step forward and admit it, we'd have a good start toward the hard data needed to estimate this cost. In the meantime, statistical research into the sources of wage differentials can be helpful. The white woman suffers economically because of sexual discrimination, the black woman from both sexual and racial discrimination. Racial discrimination costs the black man, but less than he gains from sexual discrimination.