Lecture Business and society - Chapter 19: Employment Discrimination and Affirmative Action

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Chapter
19
Employment
Discrimination
and
Affirmative
Action
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Learning Outcomes
1. Chronicle the U.S. civil rights movement and
minority progress for the past 50 years.
2. Outline the essentials of the federal discrimination
laws.
3. Define disparate treatment and disparate impact,
and give examples of how each.
4. Elaborate on issues in employment discrimination
relating to race, color, national origin, sex, age,
religion, sexual orientation, and disability.
5. Identify the different types of affirmative action and
compare and contrast them to each other.
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Chapter Outline
• The Civil Rights Movement
• Federal Laws Prohibiting Discrimination
• Expanded Meanings of Employment
Discrimination
• Issues in Employment Discrimination
• Affirmative Action in the Workplace
• Summary
• Key Terms
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Employment Discrimination
& Affirmative Action
Federal Protection •People are protected from discrimination
based on race, color, religion, national origin,
sex, age, or disability.

Several States & the District of
Columbia –
•People are protected from discrimination
based on sexual orientation.

These “Protected” groups •are not protected from job loss; young minority
men bore a disproportionate burden of the

layoffs in the most recent recession.
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The Civil Rights Movement
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

1955 - Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused
to give up her bus seat to a white man, and
was arrested.
Protests and boycotts over unequal
treatment grew and continued, and were
met with violence against the protestors.
1964 - The Civil Rights Act became law.
The 1970s - The Women’s Movement
The 1980s -Gains for women and blacks
The 1990s - Some progress, but problems
remained
The 21st century - New challenges and old
problems
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Federal Laws Prohibiting
Discrimination

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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964
Prohibits discrimination in all aspects of
employment based on:
• Race
• Color
• Religion
• Sex
• National origin
• Pregnancy
• Retaliation
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Age Discrimination in
Employment Act
• The ADEA protects workers 40 years old

and older from discrimination in:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Hiring
Discharge
Pay
Promotions
Fringe benefits
Other aspects of employment

• Does not apply where age is a bona fide
occupational qualification (BFOQ)
•

When a younger age is necessary and
related to the position.
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Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Prohibits sex discrimination in payment
of wages to women and men who
perform substantially equal work in the

same establishment.
• Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Co., 2007, heard by the Supreme Court.
•

•

Lily Ledbetter was paid less than males for
equal work, but did not discover it for
several years; the Supreme Court ruled she
should have filed suit within 180 days, the
first payment date.
In 2009, The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
changed the law, so that suit may be
brought
each time there is discrimination.10
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Rehabilitation Act of 1973, § 503
• Prohibits job discrimination on the basis of a
disability.
• Applies to employers who contract with the
federal government.
• Also requires these employers to engage in
affirmative action to employ the disabled.
• A related act, the Vietnam Era Veterans
Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974,
also prohibits discrimination on the basis of
disability, and requires affirmative action.

• The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the
model for the Americans With Disabilities
Act of 1990.
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Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA)
•

Prohibits discrimination based on physical or
mental disabilities in private places of
employment and in public accommodations;
requires employers to make reasonable
accommodations for such employees.

An individual is disabled under the Act if the
person•
•
•

Has a physical or mental impairment that limits
one or more major life activities.
Has a record of such an impairment.
Or, is regarded as having such an impairment.

Reasonable accommodations may include-

• Making facilities accessible
• Job restructuring, work schedule modification,
• Acquiring or modifying equipment or devices;
providing ©training
materials, readers, or
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interpreters

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The Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Provided increased financial
damages and jury trials in cases of
intentional discrimination based on
race, religion, sex, disability and
national origin.
• Under the original Act, monetary
awards were limited to back pay, lost
benefits and attorneys fees and costs.
• The 1991 Act permitted both
compensatory and punitive
damages.
• In addition,
theLearning
Act shifted the burden
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The Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission • Is the major federal body created to
administer and enforce U.S. job bias
laws.
• Investigates employment discrimination
complaints.
• Makes equal employment opportunity
policy
• Enforces anti-discrimination laws
through conciliation or federal lawsuits
against employers
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Expanded Meanings
of Employment
Discrimination

Disparate (unequal) treatment -

•Intentionally using race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin as a basis for treating people differently.

Disparate (adverse) impact •An employer’s practice results in fewer minorities being
included in the outcome of testing, hiring, or promotion
practices than would be expected by numerical
proportion.

Four-fifths rule •If a member of a minority group does not have a
success rate at least 80 percent that of the majority
group, the practice may be considered to have an
adverse impact.
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Two Kinds of Employment
Discrimination

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Issues in
Employment Discrimination (1 of
3)

• Inequality persists despite diversity
efforts.
• May not be caused by discrimination
• Discrimination is different depending on
race and ethnicity.
• Our increasingly diverse society
makes some people hard to categorize.
•

For example, there are many groups that
make up Hispanics, though they have
different ancestry.

• Color bias is not the same as racial
bias, ©though
they overlap.
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Issues in
Employment Discrimination (2 of
3)

• Gender issues are different from those
involving race, color and national origin.
Major issues for women include:
•
•
•
•

Getting out of traditional “women’s” jobs,
and into professional and managerial
positions
Achieving pay commensurate with that of
men
Eliminating sexual harassment
Being able to take maternity leave

without losing their jobs.
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Issues in
Employment Discrimination (3 of
3)

• Other Forms of Employment
Discrimination:
•

Religious discrimination •

•

Retaliation •

•

A more diverse population brings to the
workplace people with unfamiliar religions
One who complains of discrimination against
another and is retaliated against, may bring a
complaint.

Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identity Discrimination •

Corporations have been faster than
governments in instituting protections for
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lesbian,
bay, bisexual and transgender

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Other Forms of
Employment Discrimination

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Affirmative Action
in the Workplace
•

Affirmative action is taking positive
steps to hire and promote people from
groups that have been affected by a
legacy of discrimination.

•

Presidential Executive Order 11246

required federal contractors to employ
affirmative action.

•

Controversy has led to claims of
“reverse discrimination” by whites as
victims of discrimination when minorities
were hired.
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The Future of Affirmative Action
•

Buying power of minority groups is
increasing rapidly.

•

Growing business interest in diversity
programs and affirmative action.
•

•

Bottom-line considerations

Diversity practices remain potentially

controversial.

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Key Terms
• Age Discrimination in
Employment Act
(ADEA)
• Affirmative action
• Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Bona fide occupational
qualification (BFOQ)
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Color bias
• Comparable worth
• Compensatory justice
• Disparate impact
• Disparate treatment
• Equal Employment
Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Essential functions

• Fetal protection
policies

• Four-fifths rule
• Hostile work
environment
• Major life activities
• Preferential treatment
• Pregnancy
Discrimination Act of
1978
• Protected groups
• Quid pro quo
• Reasonable
accommodation
• Reverse discrimination
• Sexual harassment
• Strict scrutiny
• Title VII of the Civil
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Rights Act of 1964
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Key Terms
• Age Discrimination in
Employment Act
(ADEA)
• Affirmative action
• Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA)
• Bona fide occupational

qualification (BFOQ)
• Civil Rights Act of 1991
• Color bias
• Comparable worth
• Compensatory justice
• Disparate impact
• Disparate treatment
• Equal Employment
Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Essential functions

• Fetal protection
policies
• Four-fifths rule
• Hostile work
environment
• Major life activities
• Preferential treatment
• Pregnancy
Discrimination Act of
1978
• Protected groups
• Quid pro quo
• Reasonable
accommodation
• Reverse discrimination
• Sexual harassment
• Strict scrutiny

• Title VII of the Civil
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Rights Act of 1964
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