Discrimination

Fair compensation requires both awareness and action………… Most HR leaders have heard disheartening statistics about the gender pay gap. PayScale, for example, reported in its Gender Pay Gap Report for 2020 that women make only $0.81 for every dollar men make. And the World Economic Forum has estimated that it will take more than 100…

States and cities are increasingly barring employers from asking about job applicants’ salary histories with the aim of closing pay gaps, but it remains to be seen whether those laws are having the intended effect, according to recent research. An analysis of salary history bans published earlier this month by researchers at the Boston University…

In this, our fifth and final installment of Back to Basics, we outline an anti-retaliation checklist. Case in Point – when supervisors sat down with Frank Brown to tell him he couldn’t take leave to attend a doctor’s appointment with his wife during the workday, he yelled and banged his fists on the table, court documents…

As we continue our series on federal employment laws, here is the fourth of five installments for you to review. Case in point……..when Dennis Reynolds and Jack Lowe sued their employer for swabbing the insides of their cheeks to collect their DNA, they not only set themselves up to receive a $2.25 million jury verdict, but…

As we continue our journey into the basics of federal employment laws, here is the third of five in our series, this time we’ll discuss the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Imagine a woman named Dorothy has worked at an interior design firm for the last 30 years. She started out a few days…

Employers can consider a multitude of tactics, sources say, from selecting returnees fairly to communicating transparently. As more states and industries begin reopening, employers are also beginning to rehire employees who were involuntarily separated via pandemic-driven workforce reductions. In this situation, employment experts say employers need to consider a number of tactical, legal and talent…

Treating diversity differently from other organizational goals leaves the firm vulnerable to consulting fads, symbolic actions and slow or no progress, according to a new report. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses have the opportunity to rethink strategies, goals and ways to measure them — key performance indicators (KPIs), as experts call them. During this process,…

I. Introduction Until fairly recently, non-compete clauses and other employer practices affecting employee mobility and wages were a relatively minor focus of U.S. antitrust enforcement authorities. No more. Over the past few years, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”), the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), and various state attorneys general have focused significant attention…

Romance at work isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can create consequences ranging from irritating to legally actionable. Employees can spend most of their waking hours at work, so, naturally, friendships can form; and out of some of those, romantic relationships will blossom. But sometimes those work romances cross a line or spawn consequences. The…

As human resources consultants, we see all sorts of reasons for businesses deciding to terminate employees, ranging from gross misconduct to plant closures. But there is one scenario that comes up from time to time that always strikes me as a particularly unfortunate loss of talent – when a good employee gets promoted into a…

Pay Parity: What Is It and How Does an Employer Get There?

Academic Studies Diverge on Salary History Bans’ Effects on Worker Pay

Back to Basics: A Retaliation Refresher

Back to Basics: The Lowdown on GINA

Back to Basics: The Ins and Outs of The ADEA

How to Mitigate ‘Reboarding’ Risks as Workplaces Reopen

How to Apply “Evidence-Based Ideas” to Diversity and Inclusion

Competition in U.S. Labor Markets: Non-Compete Clauses Increasingly Under Fire

Shades of Gray: Should HR Regulate Romance at Work?

One Promotion Too Far