Addressing the Minority Tax by Building Diversity Capital: A Case-Based Discussion

The concept of minority tax, referring to the extra, often uncompensated burden placed on underrepresented in medicine individuals to take on diversity-related work, mentorship, and emotional labor in addition to their primary responsibilities, has emerged as an important topic for minoritized faculty, staff, and trainees in health professions education. This tax can encroach on their more valued academic performance, research time, and career advancement opportunities, yet few teaching materials introduce minority taxation and how it may be addressed by turning daily experiences and diversity, equity, and inclusion-related work into diversity capital.

Kern's six-step model guided development of a 60-minute workshop describing minority tax, diversity capital, and approaches for addressing tax by building diversity capital, including minority tax mitigation, value-based alignment, and tax reform. Educational strategies, delivered in virtual and hybrid formats, included a presentation embedded with reflection exercises and case-based discussions.

One hundred three individuals participated in the workshop, including faculty, residents, medical students, and other health professionals. Thirty-seven participants completed the pre- and postworkshop evaluation. A comparison of pre- and postworkshop responses using related-samples Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a significant increase in learners' confidence in meeting each learning objective (p < .01). Learners particularly valued the inclusion of quotes exemplifying minority taxation, and the interactive, realistic case discussions on building diversity capital.

This self-affirming workshop uniquely provides guidance on how individuals, including faculty, trainees, and other health professionals, can begin building diversity capital while institutions work toward more systematic efforts to address minority taxation.