Race Based Employment Discrimination

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Race Based Employment Discrimination

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.

Both federal and state laws generally forbid private employers, labor unions, and state and local government agencies from denying promotions, transfers, or assignments on the basis of race or color or penalizing workers with reduced privileges, reduced employment opportunities, and reduced compensation on the basis of race or color.

Typically, the EEOC or related state agency will investigate charges of race discrimination or race-related retaliation. The EEOC has broad power to secure information and company records via subpoena, field investigations, audits, and interviewing witnesses, both employees and outsiders. Statistical data may be presented to demonstrate a pattern or practice of discriminatory conduct. As in other forms of discrimination, the contents of an individual's personnel file and the files of others in similar situations are often examined. Data on workplace composition may reveal a pattern or practice of exclusion or channeling.

Regional or nationa...

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...dress issues related to a history of discrimination in this country that excluded minorities and women from obtaining certain types of employment. These programs attempt to address the many years of discrimination by giving preference to groups of minorities with decisions related to hiring, training and promotions within a company. Although laws were passed that outlawed discrimination associated with race, religion, age and gender these alone were not sufficient to compensate for the many years of these exclusionary practices. Affirmative action programs, although controversial, work to provide access to areas of employment that had been previously denied to women and minorities.

Bibliography

Preskar, Georgiana. Diversity Addiction: The Cause and the Cure. 1st. USA: AuthorHouse, 1999.

"Employment Discrimination: Overview." Department of Labor. 29 Jun 2008 .

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