Posted by marykeating on April 1, 2010 under Economic situation, Race-based discrimination, Sex-based discrimination | 
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report breaking down unemployment rates by various characteristics, including race, gender, age, educational level, and head of household status. The report shows that unemployment rates, and length of unemployment, among African-Americans are higher across all other categories. The highest burden is felt by African-American teens, with a 41.4% unemployment rate as of February. The report points out that while unemployment is bad enough, starting a work life in such a discouraging way has long-lasting ramifications.
I find two other comparisons troubling. College graduates are more likely to be employed than other groups, but the rate of African-American unemployment is higher (.2% v.s 4.5% for whites). Another striking comparison shows that the unemployment rate among women head of households (in other words, single mothers) is higher than the rate among women generally. Black women heading households experienced an even higher unemployment rate.
The report refrains from drawing any conclusions on the reasons for these stark differences, leaving that to academics with more time to develop and test theories. Surely segregation patterns must be considered. Lingering racism and discrimination against women with childcare responsibilities are pretty good possibilities as well.
Posted by marykeating on December 6, 2009 under Race-based discrimination |
The Supreme Court surprised and dismayed people across the spectrum of employment law in June when it ruled in the Ricci v. DeStefano case. In that case, the Supreme Court held that white firefighters were entitled to proceed on their claims that New Haven discriminated against them on the basis of their race. New Haven scrapped a promotional exam, on the ground that minority applicants scored poorly on the test. New Haven feared that it would be sued by the non-selected promotional candidates; instead, by ignoring the test results, and refusing to promote from the top of the list down, it was sued by the top scorers. Employers have been chewing their fingernails since, wondering if there is a way to avoid a lawsuit.
The simple answer is that any test needs to be carefully tailored to the job duties, and narrowing down the candidates most likely to succeed in the job. There seems to be a huge range of jobs these days that require a bachelor’s degree, for no particular reason. Does this not weed out sectors of the population less likely to have afforded a college education? Similarly, the entry or the promotional exam needs to be vetted, or validated. Does a good score on the test relate to the best attributes of the successful employees? Does a firefighter really need to read quickly, or are there more important attributes to focus on?
Last week, the city of New Haven has to promote the 14 firefighters who scored well on the challenged 2003 tests. Justice can be slow, certainly, but these firefighters will advance. Public employers, especially, will also be more careful in the procedures used to decide who moves up the ranks, and how they should be selected, or trained for their eventual success. I hope that if minority candidates continue to do poorly on written tests, as a group, that employers will use other means of determining the best candidates for the job.
Posted by marykeating on October 2, 2009 under Interesting cases, Race-based discrimination |
It’s the little things that can trip you up. This is true of lots of fields, from sports to carpentry to litigation. The Supreme Court just agreed to decide a case involving one of the critical little things: the statute of limitations for filing a claim of discrimination. The Court famously decided this issue two years ago in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber. It refused to allow a wage discrimination case by a woman who made less than the men in the same jobs she held. She worked for years without knowing that she was paid less than the men around her; once she learned, she filed a claim of discrimination. Since the original decision to pay her less than the men had occurred years earlier, even though the effects of that decision were perpetuated and exaggerated as the years went by, the Court held her claim came too late.
Congress reversed this decision by amending the law in January; this was President Obama’s first enactment. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act applies to wage discrimination. Specifically, it governs a “compensation decision or other practice.” There have been some questions about how far the Lily Ledbetter law goes, but it cannot be stretched to protect the 6,000 unhappy applicants in Lewis v. Chicago.
That case will decide whether African-American applicants for firefighter positions should have filed claims of race discrimination within 300 days of the City announcing a discriminatory practice, or 300 days after the employer uses it. In the Lewis case, Chicago used a test that had a disparate impact against the African-American applicants, putting many in the “qualified” category, while most people in the “well-qualified” category were white. The applicants argued that the test did not accurately measure aptitude for firefighting, and therefore should not be used since it had the effect of weeding out African-Americans, not those who would fail at firefighting.
The applicants filed claims after the City hired from the well-qualified list; the Seventh Circuit held that they should have made claims within 300 days of the announcement of the lists. The United States has filed a brief in favor of the firefighters.
