What Entrepreneurs Must Learn about Discrimination
Discrimination against employees has been an ongoing problem in many businesses nowadays. In Salt Lake City a young employee has accused Park City for pervasive race discrimination and a hostile work environment for Latinos. While in the UK, 3 women has alleged that a culture of gender discrimination was fostered by top managers in Bloomberg. This case could result to $145 million in damages.
Entrepreneurs must learn the dangers of discrimination and its impact to the business. While race and gender issues are very rampant, there are 9 different types of discrimination according to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):
- Age
- Disability
- Equal Pay
- National Origin
- Pregnancy
- Sex
- Sexual Harassment
- Religion
- Retaliation
Recently, EEOC has released a revised guideline focusing particularly on unlawful discrimination against workers with caregiver responsibilities. These are the people who take care of their children or relatives who are very sick and old. While this is composed mostly by women, the number of male employees with caregiver responsibilities has risen recently. Under this new law, businesses will be penalized if they do the following:
- Refusal to hire an employee who takes care of disabled relative because this might affect his or her performance.
- Unwillingness to adjust the workload and schedule of a pregnant employee
- Not allowing fathers to leave to take care of their babies
- Not hiring mothers with young children because they might take many leaves to take care of their children.
