Gender roles are often skewed before women or men are hired. Whereas an employer may hire middle-aged men with young children, they may pass over an equally qualified woman with kids. Employers have a misplaced, preconceived notion that women rear children, and men work, even in the 21st century.
Rager & Yoon – Employment Lawyers understands gender disparity runs amok in today’s technologically driven world of commerce. From Kaiser Permanente to your local grocery store, gender bias is as common now as fifty years ago. With our empathetic Riverside gender discrimination attorney working diligently by your side, many wrongs can be righted while compensating you for wages lost, opportunities blocked, and other monies deemed just and proper.
Gender discrimination is described as a violation that can include either, sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, or unequal pay for women who work in the same roles as men. Gender refers to traits associated with being either male or female. In the United States, it is unlawful for any business to treat employees unfairly based on their gender.
Federal law prohibits discrimination against employees. Whether it be because of gender, religion, race, color, age, nationality, and/or disability. There are several laws in place to protect everyone against discrimination. Their laws are as follows:
- Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against employment discrimination based on gender
- Equal Credit Opportunity Act makes it illegal to discriminate against credit on the basis of gender
- Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to discriminate in selling, renting, or financing a home
Depending on which state you live in, there are some laws enforced that also protect against marital and parental status too. The Family and Medical Leave Act enable employees to take time away from work in order to care for a sick family member. There are even some states, that have laws in place for protecting breastfeeding or nursing mothers in the workplace.
More specifically, gender discrimination occurs when a female has the same qualifications for a position or to even reach advanced roles in the workplace but is unable to due to the attitudes or beliefs of higher status individuals in the organization. This is commonly known as an invisible barrier or glass ceiling. There are those businesses that discriminate against women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant. This violates the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
Another area that tends to see discrimination relates to the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Under this law, companies are mandated to pay equally for equal work, no matter an individual’s gender.
Our company typically sees companies discriminate against gender in limited circumstances. Basically, when gender is vital to the job. To clarify, it is not considered gender discrimination for a company to have different uniforms for male and female employees as long as the uniforms are suitable. Now, turning to height, weight, and lifting requirements, companies are forbidden to discriminate against gender. A general rule of thumb is for an organization to consider the safest and most efficient requirements to successfully complete the work tasks. In some instances, this ultimately ends up eliminating women and members of other racial or ethnic groups from being able to do the job.
How We Handle Gender Discrimination Cases
Even with significant workplace reform, employers still find ways to unequally pay female workers. The reasons aren’t quite known, but nonetheless, doing so breaks EPA (Equal Pay Act) mandates. California and federal laws can work collectively in situations where gender disparity is happening alongside racial bias and disability discrimination, for example.
As we view each case individually, even taking class action suits, all facts are dissected and cross-referenced to build an ironclad case. Any legally required complaints must be filed with EEOC, however, because this important step could get cases thrown out for procedural violations and a defendant’s claim of unfairness.
Women no longer ‘have a place in society and the home; they deserve equal rights to earn fair wages based on equal work performed and commensurate experience.
Expect our gender discrimination attorney to force employers to compensate claims based on:
- An employer’s negligent treatment of women’s wages for whatever reason.
- An employee who has repeatedly asked for raises but is denied based solely on their gender
- Employees who’ve changed genders are being disallowed similar pay and benefits as those who don’t undergo sex-change operations.
- A woman being passed over for a promotion given to a lesser qualified man, or fired in lieu of a male being hired in her spot.
- Interviewer asking women her timeline for bearing children.
- Managers telling women to either wear more provocative clothing or get demoted.
These are some basic mitigating factors we use when evaluating cases to determine steps necessary, whether we’ll send a pre-trial settlement demand or simply file our case, and so forth.
Equality Is Important At Rager & Yoon – Employment Lawyers
Employers, in addition to being prohibited from gender separation, cannot justify paying males more than females simply because ‘this position is made for a male’ or similar nonsense. When jobs are created, they’re to be equally available to able-bodied women and men with proper training and experience.
If you find yourself doubting your work is being appreciated, but a male coworker doing similar work is constantly lauded and given more money, perhaps you have a claim which our Riverside gender discrimination attorney can look over.
Never should you feel less adequate than anyone else. Contact us to level the playing field and recover compensation owed – all the way back to your first day of employment, if possible.
We ask that you always remember, if you are the victim of gender discrimination in the workplace, under Title IX you have the right to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If your claim is supported by the EEOC, it may sue on your behalf. If that does not happen, the EEOC can always issue a right to sue letter so you can then file a complaint and/or pursue litigation.
Contact us at Rager & Yoon – Employment Lawyers either by phone or by filling out a form on our website. Our offices are located in El Segundo (310-527-6994) and Los Angeles (310-740-9890), California.