Inclusive Economies
What is the cost of being yourself? The world is filled with myths about how marginalized groups “deserve” to be underpaid and under-promoted. Our research on over 100 million working professionals tells a dramatically different story; using a wide-range of data and machine learning, we calculated the "tax" on being different and its impact on our economies. Massive value creation has been hidden by systematic undervaluing of their contributions. Yet standard practices for combating these biases have wildly differing, even negative, effectiveness. Radically different approaches of company culture and talent can dramatically reduce “The Tax”.
The Tax on Being Different
"There is a hidden tax we all pay. This tax does not build bridges. It doesn’t pave roads or pay for defence, but it is very real. In the US only the total combined federal tax revenue ($3.2 trillion) rivals it for scale. But it doesn’t stop at borders. This tax is collected around the world, and every year vast amounts of money and productivity are lost as a result, impeding growth and stagnating economies. And while everyone pays this tax its most direct burden is placed on those least able to pay it, defying any concept of fairness or economic incentive. This is the tax on being different."
StartOut Research
"This is the first study of its kind to shed light on the experiences of LGBT founders of high-growth companies.
Combining quantitative and qualitative research methods, the study analyzes a survey of 140 LGBT entrepreneurs, a big-data set of more than 100,000 straight and LGBT founders and extended interviews intended to capture the personal stories of LGBT founders."
The Transformative Power of Being Yourself
"'We’re looking at someone’s entire career as a student and a professional on their real merit, including nontraditional students and self-taught developers,' says Ming. 'Our society is being lazy with them. The goal is to do the hard work to discover them — using the concrete mathematical models we build to identify what that developer or student is really capable of.'"