‘Disparate Impact’ Comes Back to Haunt CFPB Staff Evaluations
March 17, 2014
Lender representatives privately enjoyed a bit of disparate impact schadenfreude last week when accounts surfaced in the news media that the CFPB’s own internal employee evaluations demonstrated sharp racial disparities. Citing confidential agency data it obtained, American Banker reported that the bureau’s own managers have shown distinctly different patterns in how they rate employees of different races, with white employees ranking distinctly better than minorities in performance reviews used to grant raises and bonuses. Overall, whites were twice as likely to receive the agency’s top grade last year than were African-American or Hispanic employees, the newspaper said.