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Understanding Workplace Discrimination Everyone agrees that workplace discrimination has no place in the modern business world. But not everyone understands the laws that protect employees against discrimination. This definition raises an important point: Unfair treatment does not necessarily equal unlawful discrimination.
Treating a person differently from others violates Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws only when the treatment is based on the presence of a protected characteristic, rather than on job performance or even on something as arbitrary as an employee’s personality. Keep in mind, however, that discrimination claims can be highly subjective. To avoid discrimination, you do not have to extend preferential treatment to any employee. The law requires only that you extend the same employment opportunities and enforce the same policies for each employee.
Legal Remedies EEO law stipulates that an employee who experiences discrimination can seek remedies including: Back pay Restoration of their old job (if they were fired or reassigned) A court order to stop the discrimination Compensation for pain and suffering Also, employers found guilty of workplace discrimination can face up to $300,000 in punitive damages. In addition, if your company has not offered equal employment opportunities in the past, the law can require you to take special corrective measures.
These may include “affirmative employment” initiatives that give members of persecuted groups special access to the same opportunities that other employees traditionally enjoyed. http://www. allbusiness. com/human-resources/workplace-health-safety-employment/1317-1. html Copyright ?? 1999 – 2008 AllBusiness. com, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this content or the data or information included therein may be reproduced, republished or redistributed without the prior written consent of AllBusiness. com.
Use of this site is governed Overview of Major Federal Employment Discrimination Laws Various federal, state, and local laws prohibit discrimination against employees and job applicants in the terms and conditions of employment. In general, the laws make it unlawful to treat applicants or employees less favorably or differently because they are included in certain “protected categories. ” This means all employment decisions should be based on legitimate business-related criteria. Some of the major federal laws and the protected categories under those laws are: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 964: prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. Age Discrimination in Employment Act: prohibits discrimination on the basis of age against any employee who is age 40 or older. The ADEA was amended by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, which prohibits discrimination in pension benefits and provides limitations and disclosure requirements in some circumstances where an employee or applicant is being asked to waive certain rights under the ADEA.
Family and Medical Leave Act: requires eligible employees be granted unpaid time off from work on family or medical leave of up to 12 weeks per year without being subject to job discrimination or termination of employment for taking the leave. The right to take leave applies to time off for events such as the birth of a child (or placement for adoption or foster care), to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition, or for the employee’s own serious health condition.
Equal Pay Act: amends the Fair Labor Standards Act and prohibits paying different wages to men and women who perform equal work under substantially similar conditions. Americans with Disabilities Act: prohibits discrimination against employees and applicants with actual or perceived physical or mental disabilities and requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees for the essential functions of the employees’ positions.
Civil Rights Act of 1991: amended Title VII and, in summary, broadened the availability of compensatory and punitive damages in the event of intentional discrimination. Pregnancy Discrimination Act: amended Title VII and prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII. Women affected by pregnancy or related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations.
Most states have laws that prohibit discrimination on the same grounds as federal law and some additional “protected categories. ” For example, several states prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, outside political activities, medical condition, or genetic testing. And there are many local laws that go even further to protect employees and applicants. If state or local laws have protections that are broader than federal law, covered employers must comply with the broader protections. Retaliation also is considered a form of discrimination under these laws.
Federal, state, and local laws prohibit retaliation against employees or applicants who engage in “protected activity. ” Protected activity generally means that employers are not permitted to take adverse action against an employee for opposing discrimination against themselves or others, for participating in internal discrimination investigations, or for participating in the EEO process (filing a discrimination complaint with a governmental agency or assisting others with their complaints). Similar to retaliation, harassment under any of the protected categories also is illegal.
It is considered to be a form of discrimination. Sexual harassment is perhaps the type of harassment that gets most of the press, but it is just as illegal to harass an employee or applicant based on his or her race, religion, disability, etc. Also important, but not as well understood by employers, is the fact that many of these laws also make it illegal to discriminate in the terms and conditions of employment because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability.
Title VII also prohibits discrimination because of participation in schools or places of worship associated with a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group. Employers of all sizes should work with human resources or legal counsel to determine which of the employment discrimination laws apply to their workplace. In order to be a covered employer, some of the laws require that you only employ one person, while others have a higher threshold. And some will apply only if there are a requisite number of employees in a particular location, or who have worked a certain minimum number of hours during a specific time frame.
You should know which laws apply to you and enact policies and procedures that comply with legal requirements. This is a critical feature of any effective risk-management program. It also is a first step in setting a tone at work that lets your employees know that you take seriously your obligation to provide a safe and healthful workplace. Copyright ?? 1999 – 2008 AllBusiness. com, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this content or the data or information included therein may be reproduced, republished or redistributed without the prior written consent of AllBusiness. com. Use of this site is governed y our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy, Terms of Use Agreement and Privacy Policy. GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN THE WORKPLACE Recent statistics in some sections of the country have shown that for those under the age of thirty, equal pay for equal work has arrived in the workplace for women, Hispanics and African-Americans (it has been there for some time for Asian-Americans and gays). Great! Workplace gender discrimination is fading! What often has been overlooked by those complaining about gender discrimination in the job market workplace are the choices made by the complainants.
Workplace choices made by many of them (for occupations that either pay less or have very high unemployment rates) often perpetuate the disparity in income between them and white males. This is not necessarily bad, though it may seem so at first glance. To follow are six of women’s choices that contribute to their gender’s lower incomes: (1)The frequent choice to drop out for a few years to raise children obviously lowers women’s income statistics for those dropped-out years. But mothering experience also changes many women so that they often do not rejoin the climbing-the-ladder job track. 2)The Type-A (workaholic) behavior often exhibited by executives who rise to the top is not chosen as often by women. (3)Women make the gender workplace choice to often avoid physical jobs. For example, large companies such as the major airlines have made significant efforts without much success to attract women to good-paying jobs such as airline baggage handlers. (4)Women have more often chosen advanced degrees that result in lower-paid people-helper jobs such as therapists than higher-paid business executives with MBAs. 5)Earning power has been and is much more a cultural goal for men than for women (though this workplace gender preference does seem to be changing). (6)Entrepreneurial women in fields such as private-practice psychotherapist will, on the average, choose to charge less and thus make less than their male counterparts. African-Americans have often chosen workplace occupations with dreadful unemployment rates such as musicians, artists, actors, basketball players (there are thousands attempting to fit in a few hundred slots), etc.
This is rapidly changing now, for many new black lawyers, engineers and business majors are emerging from schools. Great! They will do far more to change workplace statistics than fifty years of government anti-discrimination programs. (There is nothing wrong with picking a poor-paying occupation if that is your passion. But with that choice you may be contributing to the discrimination statistics you claim are caused by racists and gender sexists. ) 0070584567 ISBN-13: 9780070584563 Binding: Paperback Publishing Date: 2003 Publisher: Tata Mcgraw Hill Publishing Company Limited
Number of Pages: 270 Sexual Discrimination in the Workplace Most people are aware of the national statistics showing women earn $0. 76 on the $1 of what a man makes. While these figures are relevant, it is sometimes hard to discern what difference that actually has. This wage gap means that a woman would have to work a year and three and a half months extra to earn the same income that a man does. Over the years, sexual discrimination in the workplace laws have made many advances in attempts to close that gap. The history”s largest civil rights lawsuit allowing some 1. million women who work or have worked at Wal-Mart stores may also be involved in a potentially landmark change in the way that women and low wage workers are paid and promoted. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the U. S. and two thirds of its workforce is made up of female employees. According to a study by the group heading the lawsuit, women are paid less than men in every single department in the store. In addition, less than one-third of its managers are female. The lawsuit alleges Wal-Mart”s sexual discrimination in the workplace has led to women losing out on pay, promotions, and other advances.
Eliminating sexual discrimination in the workplace made its first major stride in 1964 when the Title VII provision was included in a congressional act passed during the civil rights movement. The U. S. District Judge Martin Jenkins ruled that based on the 1964 congressional act prohibiting sexual discrimination in the workplace, the giant corporation was not immune to the laws. Jenkins ruled there was sufficient anecdotal evidence warranting a class action trial presented, and that statistics showed women working at Wal-Mart stores are paid less than men in ever region and that the salary gap widens over time.
Many people believe that the Wal-Mart civil rights lawsuit has the potential to challenge and make a difference in sexual discrimination in the workplace. While the lawsuit has great potential to make change, it is also going to be very difficult. Sexual discrimination in the workplace lawsuits are very difficult to prove, and the size and complexity of the Wal-Mart case factored in can be problematic for both sides. In order to have a successful case, plaintiffs must be able to show their job duties were fulfilled but the employer made poor decisions, based on their gender, against them.
What was just a national statistic in pay discrimination may now become one of the most watched outcomes in the Wal-Mart lawsuit. Even if the lawsuits ends up being settled, as most large class action lawsuits in the U. S. do before going to trial, sexual discrimination in the workplace is sure to be even more heavily scrutinized. If the Wal-Mart lawsuit does in fact go to trial, activist groups believe it has the potential to make major changes. Disclaimer Copyright ?? 2001 – 2008 Online Lawyer Source http://www. onlinelawyersource. com/sexualdiscrimination/workplace. tml Women Face Discrimination in the Workplace *WiseTo Social Issues Digest The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. 2007 Viewpoint The practice of paying men more than women for the same job–because men had to provide for their families–while once accepted, is now illegal thanks to the Equal Pay Act of 1963. However, even today women continue to earn substantially less money than men in comparable positions. Statistics suggesting that women have made progress in closing the wage gap are misleading, and women, especially mothers, continue to be discriminated against in the workplace.
The wage gap is the difference between what men and women earn for comparable jobs. As cited by Julie Lowell, “In 1960, women earned 59 cents for every dollar that men earned. By 2002, this gap lessened by 18 cents, as women made 77 cents for every dollar that men earned. ” While this is an improvement, the fight for pay parity is far from over. Another way women experience discrimination in the workplace is the belief that women’s work is somehow worth less than men’s.
In general, the pay for traditionally female occupations–such as adminstrative assistants, nurses, librarians, teachers–remains low in comparison with traditionally male occupations, such as engineers or lawyers. “Why,” wonders Julie Lowell, “are there such differing compensation rates based on different working roles in society? Jobs that have been viewed as ‘women’s work’… are still predominantly filled by women… and are consistently paid less than a living wage. These are jobs that are some of the most important and most challenging in our society. ” A premium is simply not put on many