Chapter Eleven:

Job Discrimination
 Overview
 Chapter Eleven examines the following topics:
(1) The meaning and forms of job discrimination
(2) Statistical and attitudinal evidence of
discrimination
(3) Historical and legal context of affirmative action
(4) Moral arguments for and against affirmative
action
(5) Doctrine of comparable worth and controversy
(6) The problem of sexual harassment
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 Introduction
 Job discrimination has many variations.
 Affirmative action has been one proposed remedy
for past discrimination.
What moral arguments exist for and against
discrimination?
What are the obligations of employers toward
their employees regarding discrimination
issues?

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 Meaning of Job Discrimination
 Definition: Job discrimination occurs when:
(1) An employment decision in some way harms or
disadvantages an employee or a job applicant.
(2) The decision is based on membership in a certain
group, rather than on individual merit.
(3) The decision rests on prejudice, false stereotypes,
or the assumption that the group in question is in
some way inferior and thus does not deserve equal
treatment.
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 Meaning of Job Discrimination
 Forms of discrimination: Discrimination can be
individual or institutional, intentional or unwitting.
 Arguments against discrimination: It involves
false assumptions about a group and harms its
members, so utilitarians would reject it due to its
ill effects on overall human welfare.
 Kantians would repudiate it as failing to respect
people as ends in themselves.
 Discrimination is also unjust.
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 Evidence of Discrimination
 Statistical evidence: Studies reveal the persistence
of discrimination in American life.
Research shows wide economic disparities
between whites and racial minorities.
It shows significant occupational and income
differences seen in white males as compared to
women and minorities.
Few women and minorities can be found at the
very top of the business world.
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 Evidence of Discrimination
 Attitudinal evidence: Statistics alone do not
conclusively establish discrimination – other
elements may account for the disparities in income
and position between men and women and
between whites and other races.
 Widespread racist and sexist attitudes and biased
institutional practices and policies come into play.
 Women and minorities often find themselves
measured by a “white male” value system.
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 Affirmative Action: The Legal
Context
 The Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of
Education (1954) declared racially segregated
schooling as unconstitutional and helped launch
the civil rights movement in the U.S.
 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (later amended by
the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972)
prohibited all forms of discrimination based on
race, color, sex, religion, or national origin.

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 Affirmative Action: The Legal
Context
 The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (1967
and 1978), and the Americans with Disabilities Act
(1990) further defined illegal discrimination.
 By the 1970s, companies contracting with the
federal government were required to develop
affirmative action programs.
 They reflected the courts’ recognition that job
discrimination can exist even in the absence of
conscious intent to discriminate.
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 Affirmative Action: The Legal
Context
 Many companies believe that they benefit from
affirmative action by becoming more diverse.
 Critics say that it has often meant illegal quotas,
preferential treatment of women and minorities, or
reverse discrimination against white males.
 Many Americans now oppose affirmative action,
and political opposition to it has grown greater
than ever, particularly regarding federal
programs.
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 Affirmative Action: The Legal
Context
 The Supreme Court has adopted a case-by-case
approach to affirmative action.
Overall a majority of the Court has upheld
programs that are moderate and flexible.
Race can be taken into account employment
decisions, but only as one factor among many.
Programs that demand rigid and unreasonable
quotas or that impose excessive hardships on
present employees are illegal.
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments for affirmative action:
(1) Compensatory justice demands affirmative
action programs.
Point: We have a moral obligation to redress past
injuries.
Counterpoint: People today can’t be expected to
atone for the sins of the past – and why should
today’s candidates receive any special
consideration?
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments for affirmative action:
(2) It is necessary to permit fairer competition.
Point: Taking race and sex into account makes job
competition fairer by keeping white men from
having an undeserved competitive edge.
Counterpoint: Employers have the right to seek the
best-qualified candidates without trying to make
life fair for everybody – and disadvantaged whites
are also out there.
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments for affirmative action:
(3) It is needed to break the cycle of minorities and
women locked in low-paying, low-prestige jobs.
Point: Even if racism and sexism ended, mere
nondiscrimination would need a century or more
for blacks and women to equalize their positions.
Counterpoint: Affirmative action has its costs –
making everyone racially conscious and causing
resentment and frustration.
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments against affirmative action:
(1) It injures white men and violates their rights.
Point: Such programs violate the right of white men
to be treated as individuals and to have racial or
sexual considerations not affect employment
decisions.
Counterpoint: The interests of white men have to be
balanced against society’s interest in promoting
these programs.
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments against affirmative action:
(2) Affirmative action itself violates the principle of
equality.
Point: If equality is the goal, it must be the means,
too. Such programs are based on the same
principle that encouraged past discrimination.
Counterpoint: We can’t wish the reality of
discrimination away by pretending the world is
colorblind, when it is not.
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 Affirmative Action: The Moral
Issues
 Arguments against affirmative action:
(3) Nondiscrimination alone will achieve our social
goals; stronger affirmative action is unnecessary.
Point: The 1964 Civil Rights Act already outlaws job
discrimination, many discrimination cases have
been won before the EEOC or in court. So we only
need to insist on rigorous enforcement of the law.
Counterpoint: The absence of vigorous affirmative
action programs halts progress.
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“These days, American presidents seem to be under
political pressure to ensure that minorities and
women are represented on the Supreme Court. Is
this desire for diversity a kind of affirmative action?”
 Comparable Worth
 The meaning of the comparable worth: It says that
women and men should be paid on the same scale
– not only for doing the same or equivalent jobs,
but also for doing different jobs involving equal
skill, effort, and responsibility

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 Comparable Worth
 Advocates point to statistics showing that women
are in more low-paying jobs than men – and that
the more women dominate an occupation, the less
it pays.
 Some say monetary reparations (retroactive
payment adjustments) are due to for past work.
 They believe that paying women equally for a job
of equal worth is a matter of social justice.
 Opponents say that women have freely chosen
lower-paying occupations.
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 Sexual Harassment
 Definition: “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for
sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a
sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when (1)
submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or
implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s
employment, (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct
by an individual is used as the basis for employment
decisions affecting such individual, or (3) such conduct has
the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an
individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating,
hostile, or offensive working environment.”

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 Sexual Harassment
 Two forms of sexual harassment:
(1) Quid pro quo harassment occurs when a
supervisor makes an employee’s job opportunities
conditional on the employee’s entering into a
sexual relationship with, or granting sexual favors
to, the supervisor.
(2) Hostile working environment is behavior of a
sexual nature that is distressing to workers (often,
but not exclusively, women) and interferes with
their ability to perform on the job.
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 Sexual Harassment
 The view of the law courts: In sexual harassment
cases, the courts look to what a reasonable person
would find offensive.
 But, what matters morally is to respect each
person’s choices and wishes.

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 Sexual Harassment
 Dealing with sexual harassment: An employee
encountering sexual harassment should:
(1) Make it clear that the behavior is unwanted
(2) If the behavior persists, document it by keeping a
record of what has occurred, who was involved,
and when it happened
(3) Complain to the appropriate supervisor
(4) If internal complaints prove ineffective, consider
seeing a lawyer and learning in detail what legal
options are available
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