Affirmative action is an extremely ineffective plan to equalize minorities and majorities in the work force. This equality is supposed to be attained by requiring employers to fill racial quotas. A racial quota is a percent of employees that belong to a minority group that the employer must achieve. If the employer doesn’t meet the quota, he/she is penalized.

One setback of this idea is the fact that people, who belong to a minority, don’t have to work as hard to attain the same job as other people. This causes them to not try as hard in their job, be less productive, and be more expensive to their employers.

Another setback is when more qualified majority employees apply for a job, but have to be turned down. This can be caused if an employer has only one position open in his/her business. If two people apply for the same job, but one is an experienced person who happens to belong to a majority and the other is a very poor worker who belongs to a minority, the experienced worker in not guaranteed the job. This is especially true if the employer is close to not filling his/her quota.

Finally, one of the biggest problems is the fact that the employer is forced to compromise his/her workforce in order to fill a quota. He/she would have the opportunity to pick and choose the best employees to fill the job. However, the employer might be faced with the fact that a few people who belong to a minority who are not good workers could force the employer to hire them if they meet the very minimum specifications.

I think whoever thought up this idea should re-think it. It may be helpful in some cases, but overall, it is a hindrance.