Our Blog: Workplace Discrimination

Argues Sexual Orientation Discrimination Prohibited by Title VII

Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) took a big step forward in protecting employees from sexual orientation discrimination and harassment in the workplace.  In U.S. EEOC v. Scott Medical Health Center, P.C. and U.S. EEOC v. IFCO Systems North America, two cases filed last week in Pennsylvania and Maryland respectively, the …

Read more ›

With new generations emerging in the workforce, shifts in corporate thinking have begun to occur that have many talking. One of those shifts is toward the adoption of greater transparency between management and employees.  The thinking about transparency has started to change in one particularly controversial area: employee salaries.

Most companies treat compensation information as one of the most strictly protected, …

Read more ›

Study Finds that Older Women Face More Discrimination than Older Men

A lot has been written lately about women’s continued struggle for equal pay and opportunities in the workplace.  Nothing about those struggles is surprising.  However, a recent study shows that as women age in the workforce, things become worse for them.  Not only are they experiencing gender discrimination, but age …

Read more ›

Negative Performance Reviews: Legitimate Teaching Tools or Cover-Ups for Unlawful Actions or Intentions?

Negative performance reviews can either be legitimate teaching tools or they can be mere documents to support what a manager already plans to do.  In the plaintiff’s employment law world, we call the latter, “papering the file.”  And, oftentimes, managers unfairly paper an employee’s file when planning to …

Read more ›

How to care for yourself without derailing your career

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month the following is the first part of a three-part series regarding coping with a serious health condition, like cancer, in the workplace.

This first part deals with the immediate:  getting time off work for treatment without losing your job.

Oftentimes illnesses …

Read more ›

In the Absence of Federal Legislation for Sexual Orientation Discrimination, EEOC Steps Up

Many months ago, we heard something that surprised us – that the EEOC was interested in investigating charges of sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace.  We weren’t disappointed by this news (in fact, quite the opposite), but we were somewhat confused because the agency is charged with enforcing …

Read more ›

Small Businesses Not Immune to Anti-Discrimination Laws: Employees Should Know Their Rights

In recent years, the number of small businesses has exploded.  There are an estimated 28 million small businesses currently in the U.S., increasing about 49% since 1982.[1]  Indeed, as of 2013, businesses employing less than 50 workers comprised about 96% of companies in the U.S.[2]  The obvious corollary to these figures is …

Read more ›

Recent study by the NAACP shows that minority employees paid less than white counterparts

We are incredibly disappointed by recent research indicating that minority employees in the retail industry face significant disparities in terms of compensation and opportunities for advancement.  The study, conducted by the NAACP and Demos, a public policy organization, found that minority employees, including African-Americans, Latinos, and Asians make …

Read more ›

Part 3: How coworkers can serve as allies to transgender counterparts

For the final installment in this three part series, we wanted to focus on how coworkers and others in the workplace can serve as allies to their transgender counterparts.  The following are some tips on how to address these issues in the workplace to foster a safe and inclusive working environment.

Use …

Read more ›

Employers’ search for digital natives on the rise: good recruiting or age discrimination? 

Fortune published an interesting article this month about the rise of a curious trend: employers recruiting for “digital natives” and the potential age-biases implied by such hiring methods, which make them controversial.

Fortune reports that the “digital native” recruitment trend is especially prominent in the media, advertising, and tech industries, where …

Read more ›