The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that administers and enforces civil rights for job applicants. This federal agency enforces federal laws, responsible for workplace discrimination and they investigate discrimination complains based on person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin age (40 or older), disability or genetic information (EEOC, 2017)
It is also illegal to discriminate against a person who complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination or was a participant in an employment discrimination or lawsuit. Most companies that employ at least 15 employees are covered by the Equal Employment Opportunity
…show more content…
In 1964, the Congress passed the Public Law that the provisions of this civil right and the act forbade the discrimination on the basis of race in hiring, promoting, and firing and sex were added at the last moment. Title VII of the act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to implement the law (National Archives, 2017). After the legislation expanded, the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces laws that prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age in hiring, promoting, firing, setting wages, testing, training, apprenticeship and other terms and conditions of employment. In the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Congress progressively extended Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to include the investigatory authority, creating conciliation programs, filing lawsuits and conducting voluntary assistance programs.
Today the regulatory authority of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission includes enforcing a range of federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in employment. These include (EEO Laws,
…show more content…
To be covered by the laws that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces, an employer must have a certain number of employees in the organization. This depends on the type of organization that it is. The employer is a private company, a state or local government agency, a federal agency, an employment agency or labor union. Also depends on the type of discrimination that is alleged such as, person race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or gender information (EEOC, 2017). If the organization has a required number of employees, then the employees are protected by the anti-discrimination laws. This includes current employees, former employees, a potential employee and an applicant or employee who is being trained or an apprenticeship program (EEOC, 2017). If the claimant is discriminated against age or disability, there are other requirements that must be met in order for the claimant to be covered. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was passed to amend, revise and reform the status of unauthorized immigrants. This act prohibits the discrimination on the national origin by organizations with 4 to 14 employees. Employers are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of citizenship status as well as the discrimination of eligibility of the verification process (USCIS,
Years before this case existed, lawmakers put into law Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under that law, it prohibited actions regarding discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment matters. This act also created the EEOC, Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to enforce Title VII.
Title VII under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted on July 2nd, 1964 as a mitigation strategy to prohibit any form of discrimination on grounds of a person’s religion, sex, color, race or their national origin. The law was originally meant to solve the problem of discrimination witnessed during voter registration. It was also expected to solve discrimination present at workplaces and schools where there was widespread racial discrimination. However, the law has become an even more relevant tool and has seen to it that hiring and firing processes by many companies are adherent to it.
The mission of the EEOC, as set forth in its strategic plan, is to promote equal opportunity in employment through administrative and judicial enforcement of the federal civil rights laws, education and technical assistance.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed soon after the milestone March on Washington. In the largest march ever held in the United States, people of all races and colors gathered together to show legislature that racism would no longer be acceptable in society. Title VII, the section which deals with discrimination in the workforce is one small part of the larger piece of legislation. Title VII, of the Civil Rights Act, quickly became the most important arbiter of rights under the new law (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001). The workforce has drastically changed since the passage of the act. Women and minorities are engaged in employment now more than ever. With the passage of Title VII, the door was opened to prohibiting job discrimination and creating fairness in employment (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001). Soon after, protection against discrimination based on age and disability was provided.
Any company with 15 or more employees must be in full compliance with the ADA. The ADA, "prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions and privileges of employment" (U.S. EEOC, 2007). This includes applicants for employment and existing employees.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission mission is to enforce federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against anyone applying for employment opportunities. Discrimination will be leading to major problems in the next few years, which could cause poverty, violence, and crime. Discrimination cases are having large payouts, but the cases being are not decreasing in large amounts. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is not living up to its mission because the discrimination cases being filed are increasing in the 21st century.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, or national origin by employers, and unions, and established the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Discrimination was not fully abolished, however, it opened the door to further progress. This further progress would result to an enactment of various other acts to help support the rights and cases of African-American people.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act
According to Corley, Reed, Shedd, and Morehead, (2001) “the most important statue eliminating discriminatory employment practices, however, is the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act o 1972 and the Civil Rights Act of 1991.” The appropriation section o...
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbid businesses connected with interstate commerce to discriminate when choosing its employees. If these businesses did not conform to the act, they would lose funds that were granted to them from the government. Another act that was passed to secure the equality of blacks was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act, which was readopted and modified in 1970, 1975, and 1982, contained a plan to eliminate devices for voting discrimination and gave the Department of Justice more power in enforcing equal rights. In another attempt for equal rights, the Equal Employment ...
In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act to end racial discrimination in employment, institutions like hospitals and schools, and privately owned public accommodations In 1965, congress returned suffrage to black southerners, by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Foner 926). In the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that laws prohibiting interracial marriage were unconstitutional (Foner 951). Because of the civil rights movement in the sixties, minorities gained more rights than they had prior to the 1960s. While the 1960s were a time of advancement for minorities, it was also a time of advancement for women. In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, which outlawed discrimination in the workplace based on a person’s gender (Foner 944).
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and various other federal and state laws prohibit intentional discrimination based on ancestry or ethnicity. Some employers practice blatant forms of minority discrimination by paying lower salaries and other compensation to blacks and Hispanics. Others engage in quota systems by denying promotions and jobs to individuals on the basis of race or color. Federal laws prohibit employers of 15 or more employees from discriminating on the basis of race or color. Virtually all states have even stronger anti-discrimination laws directed to fighting job-related race and minority discrimination. In some states, companies with fewer than eight employees can be found guilty of discrimination.
Throughout the years the United States has faced many challenges with equal employment opportunities for everyone. The United States has developed The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, also known as the EEOC, to enforce laws that help prevent everyone from being treated unfairly when it comes to employment options. The EEOC has established stipulations and overlooks all of the federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices and policies (“Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions and Answers”). Some laws that have been passed are the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Although some discrimination is still a problem, all of these laws have helped the United States citizens become treated more equally in the work force.
Equal employment opportunity involves both workplace nondiscrimination and affirmative action. Equal opportunity has changed the way businesses and organizations recruit, hire, and even act in the working environment. These changes have been put in place due to the increasing numbers of women, people with different racial and ethnic backgrounds, persons of different ages, their able-bodied ness, and religion.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also stated the laws to protect discrimination based on colour, age, gender, national origin and religion in the workplace. These laws are