An Investigation of Construction Workforce Inequalities and Biases in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry

Abstract

The construction industry, one of the largest job providers in the U.S., is suffering from critical problems pertaining to labor shortage in the workforce. The researchers have recognized as a critical issue an insufficient interest and poorly sustained participation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry by underrepresented demographic groups. To address the issue of workforce income inequality and bias, the industry must be able to understand the current situation regarding inequality and pinpoint some of the basic problems. To address this need, this study analyzes current inequality within the construction workforce by race/ethnicity and gender. The preliminary results of the study show that White construction workers are, in average, 16.2 times more than African Americans and 3.6 times more than Hispanics in average, African Americans being the least in number in the construction workforce. Also, the study shows that men in construction workforce, on average, earn 4.2% more than women in the years sampled. Our trend analysis shows that these gaps relating to the number of employed personnel and median weekly earnings did not change.