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. 2021 Apr 28;16(4):e0250630.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250630. eCollection 2021.

Does the U.S. Navy's reliance on objective standards prevent discrimination in promotions and retentions?

Amos Golan  1   2 , William H Greene  3 , Jeffrey M Perloff  4
Affiliations

Does the U.S. Navy's reliance on objective standards prevent discrimination in promotions and retentions?

Amos Golan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

To prevent discrimination, the U.S. Navy enlisted-personnel promotion process relies primarily on objective measures. However, it also uses the subjective opinion of a sailor's superior. The Navy's promotion and retention process involves two successive decisions: The Navy decides whether to promote an individual, and conditional on that decision, the sailor decides whether to stay. Using estimates of these correlated decision-making processes, we find that during 1997-2008, Blacks and Hispanics were less likely to be promoted than Whites, especially during wartime. The Navy's decision-making affects Blacks' differential promotion rates by twice as much as differences in the groups' characteristics. However, Nonwhite retention probabilities, even when not promoted, are higher than for Whites, in part because they have fewer opportunities in the civilian market. Females have lower promotion rates than males and slightly lower retention rates during wartime.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. The relative frequencies of minorities in the population (2010 census) and in the Navy (2008).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Promotion rates (%) by racial-ethnic groups and sex during peace and war.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Retention rates (%) by racial-ethnic groups and sex during peace and war.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Navy by Gender, Race and Ethnicity. Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity; p. 14. Available from: https://diversity.defense.gov/Portals/51/Documents/Presidential%20Memora...
    1. Demographic Profile of the Active-Duty Enlisted Force. Military Leadership Diversity Commission; 2008 p. 6. Available from: https://diversity.defense.gov/Portals/51/Documents/Resources/Commission/...
    1. Wise DA. Personal Attributes, Job Performance, and Probability of Promotion. Econometrica. 1975;43:913–31.
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MeSH terms