Study: Chareidi Workers Don’t Feel Discriminated Against

Ninety-seven percent of chareidi Israelis who work full time said that they have never experienced discrimination at work, a new study by the Israel Democracy Institute says. The study was based on an analysis of a poll on workplace issues for the year 2016 by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). According to the study, “Chareidi employees do not feel exposed in any way to discrimination, actual or verbal.”

With that, the authors of the study stress that it encompasses only experiences reported by people on the job – and does not take into account possible discrimination in the hiring process. The last several years, the study said, has seen a marked increase in the number of chareidim who are employed in workplaces where the majority of workers are secular or traditional. Once hired, the chareidim in these workplaces find that other workers are very accommodating of their lifestyle, the report said.

While chareidim make up 15 percent of the Israeli population, the study said, they occupy only 6 percent of top management positions. The study attributed that to the far lower number of chareidim who attend post-secondary schools; 17 percent of the chareidi population has a university or college degree or a post-secondary certificate, compared to 45 percent of the general population.