This spring, millions of young people will graduate and enter the workforce. They will join a generation of young workers – the most diverse generation of workers in American history – who may face high rates of discrimination in the workplace. But because the federal agencies tasked with enforcing fundamental civil rights protections in the workplace are failing workers, young people may be left with fewer protections at work.
This Generation of Young Workers Is More Diverse and More Anxious about Their Economic Futures
New National Partnership analysis finds that the generation of young workers, ages 16-24, entering the workforce today is more racially and ethnically diverse than their parents’ generation, driven in particular by growth among Asian and Latino workers. These groups’ share of the young labor force grew more than 1.5 times between 2005 and 2025. The share of young workers who are Latino jumped from 16.6 percent to 25.4 percent over these two decades, and among young Asian workers from 3.1 percent to 5.2 percent. Young Black workers also made slight gains: 12.4 percent of young workers were Black in 2005, compared to 13.0 percent in 2025. The share of young women workers also ticked up slightly from 47.8 percent to 48.9 percent. The share of younger people identifying as LGBTQ+ has also grown: in 2025, 23.0 percent of Americans 18-29 identify as LGBTQ+, compared to 6.4 percent a decade ago.
But this diversity also means these young workers are more likely to face discrimination at work. Workers of color report experiencing significantly higher rates of workplace discrimination than white workers, with 41 percent of Black workers, 25 percent of Asian workers, and 20 percent of Hispanic workers experiencing discrimination, compared to just 8 percent of white workers. This might look like employers favoring white-sounding names during the hiring process or supervisory practices that create hostile or exclusionary environments for Black and Latino workers. This discrimination can block access to the well-paying jobs that can support their economic security.
LGBTQ+ workers face similarly high rates of workplace discrimination. Nearly 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ adults reported experiencing discrimination on the job, with rates even higher among transgender workers and LGBTQ+ workers of color.
And young people are deeply concerned about their economic security. Around the world, they have expressed more concern about economic issues, including high prices and low wages, than older adults. In the U.S., young workers worry whether they can achieve the same level of economic security as their parents did. In a Harvard Youth Poll, only 30 percent said they believe they will be better off financially than their parents, and 43 percent said they are “struggling or just getting by with limited financial security.” This financial strain is especially pronounced among young Black and Hispanic people. About half of Hispanic and Black respondents shared that they faced financial hardship, compared with 39 percent of their white peers.
Civil Rights Enforcement Has Weakened Just as This Generation Needs It The Most
As young workers become more diverse, a larger share belong to groups that face higher rates of discrimination, creating barriers to the stable jobs and fair pay that could help them overcome economic instability. Strong civil rights protections are essential to ensuring fair access to good jobs and equal pay.
But the federal agencies tasked with enforcing our nation’s anti-discrimination laws are now doing less to protect workers.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, has narrowed its enforcement focus under the leadership of Chair Andrea Lucas. Lucas has aggressively reframed diversity, equity and inclusion programs as “primarily harm[ing] white men” and urged more white men to file discrimination claims. At the direction of the Trump White House, the agency has abandoned disparate impact, a standard that ensures workers are protected against employment practices that may appear neutral but unfairly exclude workers of color or other protected classes. The agency has also tried to intimidate companies into doing away with diversity, equity and inclusion programs and practices, suing a large distributor of Coca-Cola for hosting a women-only networking event and investigating Nike for its diversity initiatives. At the same time, the agency has directed its staff to halt the processing of discrimination claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The agency is also taking on fewer cases. In fiscal year 2005, the EEOC filed 383 lawsuits, but in fiscal year 2025, that number plummeted to just 93. The agency’s performance report shows it pursued only two racial discrimination lawsuits in fiscal year 2025, down from 15 the prior year, despite race being among the most common bases for discrimination complaints filed with the agency. Also in 2025, Trump illegally fired Commissioners, leaving the agency without the leadership quorum required to approve high-impact litigation. Even if the agency were currently fully committed to its mission, it faces 45 years of chronic underfunding. The EEOC is operating with significantly fewer staff than it had in 1980, despite a massive increase in the number of cases filed by the public and the size of the workforce.
Last year, the Trump administration also rolled back a civil rights era mandate, Executive Order (EO) 11246, which required companies that contract with the federal government to take proactive steps to ensure equal employment opportunity. Federal contractors, which include major employers such as Boeing, Microsoft and Lockheed Martin, employ over 20 percent of the American workforce. This rollback meant young workers at major employers lost the benefit of an intentional approach to increasing employment opportunities for qualified yet underrepresented workers, including women and workers of color.
This shift away from meaningful enforcement could mean that young people experience workplaces with unchecked discrimination.
Young Workers Need to Mobilize for Civil Rights – Again
The civil rights protections now being undermined were won through decades of organizing, at times led by young people who refused to accept discrimination. Young people have always been a part of civil rights organizing. In the 1960s, young activists led sit-ins and Freedom Rides that helped dismantle legal segregation.
Today, young workers are leading the support for unions and protests against immigration enforcement policies. That same organizing power is needed now to fight for civil rights in the workplace.
Young workers have the power to help fight back against attacks on workplace civil rights. The moment to act is now.
Acknowledgement: Special thank you to Mary Akinrogbe, Economic Justice Intern, for her invaluable research assistance in compiling the workforce demographic data featured in this post.
