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

Contents: The Civil Rights Movement, Federal Laws Prohibiting Discrimination, Expanded Meanings of Employment Discrimination, Issues in Employment Discrimination, Affirmative Action in the Workplace.

© 2015 Cengage Learning 1

Chapter

19

Employment Discrimination

and Affirmative

Action

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

© 2015 Cengage Learning 3

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

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

Federal Laws Prohibiting

Discrimination

7

© 2015 Cengage Learning

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of

1964

Prohibits discrimination in all aspects of

employment based on:

Age Discrimination in

Employment Act

• The ADEA protects workers 40 years old

and older from discrimination in:

• 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

• A related act, the Vietnam Era Veterans

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

interpreters© 2015 Cengage Learning 12

The Civil Rights Act of 1991

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

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The Equal Employment

Opportunity Commission -

• Is the major federal body created to

• Enforces anti-discrimination laws

through conciliation or federal lawsuits against employers

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

© 2015 Cengage Learning 15

Two Kinds of Employment

Discrimination

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 © 2015 Cengage Learning 17

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

Issues in Employment Discrimination (3 of

3)

• Other Forms of Employment

Discrimination:

• Religious discrimination

workplace people with unfamiliar religions

• Retaliation

another and is retaliated against, may bring a complaint

• Sexual Orientation and Gender

Identity Discrimination

governments in instituting protections for lesbian, bay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees

© 2015 Cengage Learning 19

Other Forms of Employment Discrimination

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

victims of discrimination when minorities were hired © 2015 Cengage Learning 21

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.

Disabilities Act (ADA)

• Bona fide occupational

• Four-fifths rule

• Hostile work environment

• Major life activities

• Preferential treatment

• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

• Protected groups

• Quid pro quo

• Reasonable accommodation

Disabilities Act (ADA)

• Bona fide occupational

• Four-fifths rule

• Hostile work environment

• Major life activities

• Preferential treatment

• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978

• Protected groups

• Quid pro quo

• Reasonable accommodation