Employment Discrimination

A common assignment on Employment Discrimination is as follows:

The federal government assists employees from being discriminated against in the workplace. Employment discrimination is covered under several key pieces of legislation that the government saw fit to put into place over the past 50 years. These include the following:

• The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Protects employees from being discriminated against on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963: Does away with discrimination in wages between women and men, when employed in the same position or job.
• The Age Discrimination Act of 1967: Prohibits age discrimination against individuals who are 40 years old or older.
• The Americans with disabilities Act of 1990: Protects people with disabilities from being discriminated against.
• The Genetic Nondiscrimination Act of 2008: Prevents an employer, or a potential employer, from discriminating against someone on the basis of genetic information that is known or acquired.

Legal Guidelines Protect Employees

These legal guidelines protect employees and keep employers in line when opportunities such as promotions, pay increases, career advancement and basic hiring opportunities become available. Unfortunately, employers cannot be trusted on their own to disregard stereotypes or do away with biases that are part of human nature. It is often unintentional on the part of the employer. For example, it is pervasive in the American Psyche that it is alright for a man to earn more than a woman. These laws protect both the employee and the employer, by preventing law suites and equalizing the playing field before trouble begins.

Diversity in the Work Force

The diversity of the American population and work force requires that accommodations be made for all who seek employment. Fair working conditions, wages and opportunities are only a small part of the over-reaching problems that these items of legislation seek to impart. Employment discrimination is unacceptable and due to the nature of the workplace, many more laws still need to be put into place to insure that every citizen is treated fairly and given equal wage opportunity.