Unfair Hiring Practices

Unfair hiring practices can include discrimination based on race, gender, religion, national origin, disability status, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, veteran status, or any other factor that would not be considered unlawful under federal law.

What Is “Disparate Impact”?

When employers have an interest in discriminating against job applicants because they belong to protected groups, this is called “disparate impact”. If the employer has no interest in discriminating against members of these protected groups, but still chooses to take actions that result in disparate impact, then this is referred to as “disparate treatment”. Disparate impact claims require the plaintiff to show that the employer uses facially neutral policies or practices that disproportionately affect members of protected groups.

Unfair Employment Laws

Unfair employment laws protect people from being discriminated against due to their membership in protected classes. They do not provide them with special rights or benefits; rather, they ensure that employees who are members of a protected class are treated equally to others.

Unfair Hiring Practices

An example of unfair hiring practices is when an employer limits its workforce to only certain types of applicants. This could be done intentionally or unintentionally. In either case, this practice results in a discriminatory effect. However, if the employer does offer jobs to non-protected group applicants, but those applications are rejected at higher rates than the applicant pool, this may be evidence of disparate impact.

Some examples of disparate impact include:

Employers setting standards that are difficult for disabled persons, women, African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos or any other protected group to meet.