{"id":916,"date":"2022-02-28T10:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.harmonizehq.com\/blog\/?p=916"},"modified":"2022-02-22T15:02:34","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T20:02:34","slug":"employment-discrimination-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonizehq.com\/blog\/employment-discrimination-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Employment Discrimination – USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,<\/span>\u00a0 in 2019<\/a><\/strong>, one-third of cases concerned racial discrimination. Another third related to disability and the last third involved gender in some way. Employment discrimination cases do not necessarily disadvantage the individual because of one characteristic in isolation; often they overlap.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it is stated in the American Disability Act, these characteristics do not necessarily have to impact the employee themselves. For example, an employee who is a caregiver of a disabled relative can rely on disability discrimination protections in the workplace, even though it is not the employee themselves who is disabled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Who is entitled to protection?<\/b><\/h2>\n

First and foremost, the person must be an employee of the business. This includes full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers, as well as those working on a temporary basis. Under certain situations, even volunteers can be covered. Before filing a complaint, the person should check whether they are entitled to be protected. Those who are not citizens, including undocumented workers, are also protected by employment discrimination law.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, the business the person works for must have 15 or more employees and should have run for a minimum of 20 calendar weeks in the previous year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who can help?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The leading body that can help the victim against employment discrimination is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the EEOC). This is a federal agency, established by the Civil Rights Act 1964 (Title VII) which is tasked with enforcing anti-discrimination law which prohibits discrimination in the workplace. EEOC is responsible for investigating employment discrimination cases, as well as attempting to settle them. This could vary from mediation to filing a lawsuit on behalf of an employee.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Commission also operates outreach programs across the country which pre-emptively educates about and prevents employment discrimination occurrences before any lawsuits.<\/span><\/p>\n

The EEOC, as well as employment discrimination law, also protects those who \u2018assert their rights to be free from employment discrimination. This means that employers are prohibited from retaliating against those who have filed complaints.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What laws operate?<\/b><\/h2>\n

A plethora of anti-discrimination laws are enforced by the EEOC to eradicate all forms of employment discrimination. These laws correlate to the characteristics, listed above, that are protected by employment discrimination law. The discrimination victim has a claim if their situation falls under any of the categories of employment discrimination. These laws also protect the employee from retaliation during and after the proceedings.<\/span><\/p>\n