Articles Posted in Gender

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Imagine a business that gives its employees two days off each week. There’s nothing abnormal about that.

However, the company uses a sex-based policy to determine which two days an employee can pick. Only men can select full weekends off—women cannot. Instead, female employees can pick either two weekdays off or one weekend day plus one weekday; they never get an entire weekend off.

Is that discriminatory? Yes, But does this system violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it unlawful to discriminate at work based on sex? Continue reading

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A few weeks ago, I blogged here about how a federal appellate court concluded that firing someone who isn’t a ‘good fit’ isn’t necessarily a coded phrase for discrimination. Still, I generally recommend to clients that they be more direct when terminating someone’s employment by explaining the legitimate business reason(s) for the decision.

Similar issues may arise when companies make hiring decisions. Code words used to describe protected classes that reflect a company’s hiring preferences generally aren’t hard to crack. And then they become costly. Continue reading

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When employees allege discrimination, they must prove an employer’s discriminatory motive and connect it to a particular adverse employment decision. An adverse action requires evidence of a significant change in employment status, benefits, or pay. Usually, the proof comes in the form of failure to hire, a firing, failure to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or lost pay or benefits.

But, from a federal court decision I read last night, I’ve got a list of eight items that are not adverse enough on which to base a disparate treatment claim. Continue reading

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About six years ago, five players on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) filed a Charge of Discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). The women claimed that they were paid up to four times less than their male counterparts for doing basically the same job. Continue reading

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Image Credit: pxfuel.com

When many people think of a “motorcycle enthusiast,” they imagine someone in sunglasses, a leather vest, jeans, boots, and lots of facial hair. And while that describes my Aunt Helen, most folks picture someone like the guy in the photo.

By the way, I don’t have an Aunt Helen. If I did, she’d likely consider me a great disappointment to the Meyer name as I don’t ride a motorcycle — unless the sidecar somehow counts.

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“Doing What’s Right – Not Just What’s Legal”
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