Age Discrimination In Employment Act example essay topic

Dave Gure Attorney Mark Walsh Business Law 101 April 4, 2003 Job Discrimination What is discrimination? Discrimination occurs when you treat someone differently on the basis of some characteristic, such as race, gender, hair color, height, and so on. A major portion of discrimination usually happens against a minority class. Anybody who is not a non-handicapped, agnostic, born-in-America, white male, under the age of forty, fits into some minority group, or so called protected group. It is believed that seventy percent of us fall into one of the protected groups. Discrimination in the work place has been around for many years.

In the past, job discrimination was routinely ignored. It happened very often, but there were no laws or any type of legal action that a person could take to stop it. If a person did speak out about it, that person was ridiculed, fired, or in some instances, even beat up by his co-workers. Today's laws and statues make job discrimination harder to get away with than in the past.

Does it still happen? Sure it does, but with today's rules and regulations, job discrimination is a lot less scarce than in the past. There are federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, gender, pregnancy, national origin, religion, disability, and age. There are also additional laws by the different states that prohibit discrimination such as marriage, sexual orientation, and weight.

Some of today's employers go above and beyond their duty to prevent job discrimination from happening. This is especially true with a lot of the bigger company's. They realize that in order to become a successful company they need to strictly adhere to certain in house rules that create a workplace environment that is friendly to all. Also they cannot afford to be tying up their resources in costly legal battles. One example of this is the Redmond, Washington based software company, Microsoft. Microsoft has been the target of numerous lawsuits regarding job discrimination, especially by female and minority employees.

In order to curb some of these lawsuits, Microsoft hired an expert in job-equality issues. Her name, Claudette Whiting, was a former director of job equality initiatives for Dupont. Says Whiting "Microsoft understands that a culturally diverse work force is important to the company's long-term success and will enable the company to participate and respond to the needs of a global marketplace" Discrimination can come in many different forms. They can include gender, disability, religion, and age. Let us look at each one with a little more detail.

Gender may be one of the most talked about forms of discrimination. There are arguments on both sides of the coin though. When we talk about gender discrimination, we often hear about the female gender being discriminated against. We hear about the glass ceiling and how women's wages don't add up to those of their male counterparts. "The equal pay act of 1963" assured that women would not be discriminated against when it came to equal pay for the like job. It is thought that a woman earns seventy cents for every dollar that a man earns, however, women acknowledge that women have been discriminated against as a whole.

They " re less likely to admit that they have been discriminated against personally On the other side of the coin, it could be argued that some of the recent statistics in certain sections of the country have shown that those under the age of thirty, equal pay for equal work has arrived in the workplace For those who do complain about the disparity between them and their male counterparts, it could be argued that there may be some choices that the women make to contribute to their genders lower income These may include, o The frequent choice to drop out for a few years to raise children. Mothering often changes a woman so that they do not rejoin the climbing-the-ladder job track 4 o The Type-A (Workaholics) behavior often exhibited by the executives who rise to the top is not chosen as often by the women 4 o Women have often chosen advanced degrees that result in lower-paid people-helper jobs such as therapists than higher-paid business executives with MBA's 4 Race is another often talked about form of discrimination. The equal right laws of the US. state, "All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every state and territory to... the full benefit of all laws for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens" Federal laws, mainly, "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964" and different state human right laws, prohibit race discrimination. The difference between the two is the federal law applies to employers that have a work force of at least fifteen employees, while state laws usually apply to smaller employers. Disability discrimination is often a very broad topic. "A handicapped individual is a person that has a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is perceived as having such an impairment.

(A person is perceived as having a handicap when he isn't actually handicapped, but people think he is; for example, he is suspected of having aids) 5 The law that protects against disability discrimination is "Americans with Disabilities Act" (ADA). This took over for the "Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973" on July 26, 1992. Sometimes people try to take advantage of this law. There have been cases that people have tried to file complaints on grounds such as, they were left handed, or being a transvestite constituted a handicap. There was even a case back in 1994, where a person tried to convince the courts that having body odor was a disability.

When it comes to disability, it has to be handled by a case to case situation. One of the more little known forms of discriminations is religion. The reason being is, first of all, an employer is not supposed to ask about your religion, second of all, the employer should not care if you worship the great oak tree in your back yard, as long as it does not interfere with you performing your job. Most of the time it is not your religion, but your religion practices that may be the target. "The U.S. Supreme court has ruled that, in accommodating your religious practices, your employer isn't required to incur more than minimal cost, doesn't have to violate the terms of a bona fide seniority system, and does not have to pick the accommodation that you prefer"5 Somewhere stuck in the middle is age discrimination. The law that protects against age discrimination is called "The Age Discrimination in Employment Act" (ADEA) This law prevents employers from discriminating against you because of your age, but only if your over forty and work for a employer that employs at least twenty people.

In some instances an employer can set minimal age requirements for certain jobs, for example, to serve alcoholic beverages, or to work on hazardous jobs. There are also certain other exceptions to the ADEA. o If you have been in a bona fide executive or in a high policy making position for at least the past two years and are entitled to an immediate, non-forfeitable pension of at least $44,000 a year, you can be let go at age 655 o If age is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) of your job, you can be terminated when your age becomes a relevant factor. The BFOQ exception is limited to jobs where an employer can legitimize a cutoff age for reasons that are "reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the enterprise". Age as BFOQ has been upheld for public safety personnel, for example, police and fire fighters.

5 o If you are let go as a result of the operation of a bona fide seniority system, retirement plan, or apprentice system. 5 How do you know if you " ve been discriminated against? Some situations are fairly obvious, while others are not. For those that are not, asking yourself three questions might point you in the right direction on whether you have a valid case or not. These questions are: o Am I a member of a protected group because of my race, sex, religion, national origin, physical or mental handicap, age, or sexual orientation? o Am I being treated differently from other "similarly situated" employee's? o Is it because I'm black, female, over forty, handicapped, or a member of any other protected group?

5 If you have answered yes to these questions, then you may have a valid basis for a discrimination complaint. So what are your rights and what can you do if you feel that you have been discriminated against? If you feel that you have been discriminated against, you have many available options that you can pursue. You can start by filing a complaint with the "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission" (EEOC) or you can file legal action through your own private attorney. Whatever your decision may be, if you feel that you have been discriminated against you should not sit back and continue to let it happen. My lawyer. com web Steven, Boni steel.

News byte News Network. May 15, 2001 Fue gen, Kathleen, Bier nat, Monica. "A journal of research" Sex Roles. September, 2000 White, Thayer. Be your own therapist. Copyright 1995 Joel, Lewin G. "Discrimination and related issues" Every Employee's Guide to the Law Copyright 1993, 1996.