Weight-Based Discrimination in the Workplace: Is Legal Protection Necessary?

Legal protection against weight-based discrimination in the workplace exists in the U.S. However, it is quite limited and its application across jurisdictions is inconsistent. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether such protection is needed—in other words, whether significant weight-based discrimination exists in the workplace, and, if it does, to what extent the legal system should intervene to prevent such discrimination.     

Potential Discrimination in Structured Employment Interviews

This experimental study examines the effects of bias toward persons with disabilities (PWDs) upon the employment interview decision process. The design and operationalization of the study permitted examination of the effects of specific disabilities, interview performance, and the resulting interaction between disability and interview performance, using 630 undergraduate students at a major university in the southwestern United States as subjects. The results indicate that (1) interview performance has a favorable, significant main effect upon subsequent HRM decisions, (2) specific disabilities, that is, child care demands, HIV-positive status, and being wheelchair-bound, have unfavorable, significant main effects upon subsequent HRM decisions, and (3) the presence of any of the disabilities decreased the favorable impact of superior interview performance. The limitations of the structured interview to mitigate bias were demonstrated. Given the pervasive, unfavorable treatment directed toward PWDs, it appears that the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (1993) is warranted. The public policy implications of these results and recommendations for future research were discussed.     

Sex Discrimination in the Audiology Profession

A bstract . Male and female audiologists earn substantially different sums in the U.S. Inour survey of the practicing audiologists across the continental U.S., it was found that the male audiologists, on the average, earned $9,536 a year more in 1980 than did the female audiologists. The survey data, involving a well-defined profession where males and females were nearly equally represented, were analysed to check if the observed differential was due to sex-based productivity differences or to discrimination. Attributed to discrimination must be 64% of the earnings differential; it could not be explained by the relevant supply characteristics of audiologists, viz. experience, schooling, place of employment, marital status, regional concentration , etc. This conclusion was further confirmed by separate regressions of audiologists' earnings by attributing female supply characteristics to the male earnings structure and the male characteristics to the female earnings structure.     

When is Contracting Preferable to Employment? An Exploration of Management and Worker Perspectives

abstract    Managers make choices regarding the types of employment structures that meet the needs of the firm, and workers make choices regarding the types of arrangement that meet their needs. Various streams of literature offer perspectives on why employment or contracting might be preferred but it is often the perspective of the firm that dominates the analysis. This kind of one-sidedness weakens our understanding of employment as a relationship . It lacks recognition of the importance of mutuality: of matching the needs of the worker with the needs of the business. This paper reports research investigating management decisions to use self-employed contractors or employees for particular jobs, and workers' decisions to seek or accept organizational employment or self-employment. Some 80 in-depth interviews were conducted with managers and workers across two industries (energy supply and engineering consultancy) with the intent of studying two groups of workers differing dramatically in skill levels. While largely confirming existing theory on the management conditions relevant to the contracting-out of work, the study identifies factors that make a contracting relationship more mutually beneficial, thus suggesting propositions for further research on worker preferences.     

Discrimination in Employment Provisions in the Mexican Federal Labor Law

The discrimination in employment provisions in employment provisions in the Mexican Federal Labor Law (FLL) are surveyed in a general overview. Employment discrimination in Mexico under the FLL is generally proscribed but is mandated in a limited number of instances. Discriminatory violations can induce various sanctions against transgressing Mexican employers.     

Sex Differences in Responsiveness to Organizational Career Management

This is a study of differences between women and men in their responsiveness to formal organizational career management. Questionnaire data from 272 men and 101 women were analyzed. It was found that women's individual career variables were mostly similar to men's, but their responsiveness to organizational career management was higher than men's. Women's career effectiveness (performance, attitudes, identity, and adaptability) and career planning increased when the level of perceived organizational career management was high. The sex difference remained even when the effects of two other responsiveness-reducing factors, managerial position and tenure, were controlled. The results are interpreted in terms of women's cognitive construction of organizational reality. It is suggested that human resource managers have to distinguish between two different objectives: enhancing women's effectiveness vs. enhancing their career progress. To attain the first objective, formal career management systems should be developed. To attain the second, it is argued that women need to relate differently to the informal organizational system.     

论我国大学毕业生求职过程中所遇到的就业歧视的非正义性

大学毕业生求职受到不公平待遇，侵害了大学生公平竞争和平等就业的权利，对其心理上造成的伤害是无法愈合的。就业歧视是高校扩招政策市场化程度较高的企业的经营意识催生的结果。就业歧视必然带来社会的正义问题，因为它违反了法治原则，是一种就业机会的不平等，腐蚀了政治系统合法性的基础，侵犯了基本的人权。     

行业分割视角下的农民工就业歧视量化研究

本文采用2008~2010年国家宏观统计数据,对以工资差距反映的农民工就业歧视问题,运用加权行业分割指数和因素分解模型进行了分析,结果表明:中国劳动力市场确实存在农民工与城镇职工的行业分割性,这种分割对形成农民工与城镇职工的工资差距产生一定的影响,而且影响程度呈逐年加大的趋势。这一研究结果说明中国农民工在职业准入方面与城镇职工存在较大的差异,而且这种差异导致两个群体的工资差距也在逐年加大。若消除行业分布差异的影响,农民工的平均工资将得到提升,以2010年为例将提升23.6%。     

论我国大学毕业生求职过程中所遇到的就业歧视的非正义性

大学毕业生求职受到不公平待遇,侵害了大学生公平竞争和平等就业的权利,对其心理上造成的伤害是无法愈合的。就业歧视是高校扩招政策市场化程度较高的企业的经营意识催生的结果。就业歧视必然带来社会的正义问题,因为它违反了法治原则,是一种就业机会的不平等,腐蚀了政治系统合法性的基础,侵犯了基本的人权。     

Arbitration of Statutory Employment Discrimination Claims in a Nonunion Environment: A Guide to Procedural Fairness

The previous decade has seen an increasing trend toward the use of arbitration to resolve statutory employment discrimination claims. The enforceability of most private sector arbitration agreements arising in a nonunion setting is reviewable under the Federal Arbitration Act. Such arbitration agreements are most often created by management and become a condition of employment. To represent a feasible alternative to court litigation, employers and employees must have confidence that outcomes achieved through the arbitration process will be enforced by the courts as final and binding upon the parties to the dispute. The extent to which an arbitration agreement adequately protects the procedural and remedial rights of the participants is an important issue affecting the probability that a court will enforce the outcome of an arbitration procedure. This paper reviews guidelines provided by the courts and practitioners to aid in the design of an effective and legally enforceable arbitration procedure to resolve statutory employment discrimination claims arising in a private sector nonunion environment.     

How Discrimination Against Female Workers Is Hidden in U.S. Industry Statistics: Sex Differences in Wages in the Cotton Textile and Boot and Shoe Industries Between the World Wars

Abstract . The conclusion that the male-female earnings gap largely reflects sex differences in occupational structure is widely accepted, This conventional wisdom is challenged by examining intraoccupational male-female wage differences in two leading manufacturing industries, cotton textiles and boots and shoes, for the 1920s and 1930s. The results show little evidence of sex differences in wage rates in particular occupations in the cotton textile industry. The piece wage system protected the wages of female workers and kept intraoccupational wage differences between the sexes within narrow limits. In contrast, the evidence points to sharp sex differentials in occupational wage rates in the boot and shoe industry. In this industry, piece wages in the different occupations varied directly with the price of the shoes. By assigning work on low quality shoes to females employers were able to practice wage discrimination against them.     

对大学生就业中性别歧视问题的调查研究——以陕西省为例

在中国高等教育大众化,大学扩招的背景下,高校毕业生急剧增加,就业成为高校毕业生面临的首要问题,而在大学生就业过程中,女大学生就业中的性别歧视问题尤为突出,成为社会关注的焦点。本文通过对大学生、企业、高校三方面对女大学生就业性别歧视问题进行调研,结合国内外文献研究成果,系统分析女大学生就业性别歧视问题的成因、现状及影响,并在此基础上从高校、用人单位、政府和女大学生自身等方面提出对策建议。     

Economic and Social Factors in Income Inequality: Race and Sex Discrimination and Status as Elements in Wage Differentials

Abstract . This paper examines by the use of several econometric techniques some of the economic and social factors in wage differentials as elements in income inequality. The effects of education, sex, occupation, class of workers, industry, race, marital status, hours and weeks worked, and age are analyzed by the use of regression analysis in conjunction with binary variables and joint tests of significance. The results show that the inclusion of the sex variable represents a significant improvement over previous economic models and that it is not the number of years of education that is important but rather the obtaining of academic degrees.     

Differences in Opportunities? Wage,Employment and House‐Price Effects on Migration*

Most empirical studies of individual migration choice analyse factors associated with out‐migration from an origin location. In contrast, we model the migration decision within the context of potential destinations, combining British panel data over the period 1992–2008 with other data sources. Contrary to earlier micro studies, we show that differences in house prices levels (but not growth) are important determinants of household migration for homeowners. Unemployed individuals respond to regional differences in expected individual wages, whereas the employed are more sensitive to employment opportunities. Our evidence is consistent with partners of heads of households being tied migrants.