I had intended to post an additional article earlier this week but got tied up with work on a trial. With that being said, on my flight back home, I was able to find a few good articles that really ran the gamut of topics this week. The one I would point readers to in particular is a Second Circuit decision that held that anti-gay discrimination in the workplace is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I suspect that this issue will eventually reach the Supreme Court, given an expected split among circuits on the matter. However, as I note below, the Second Circuit opinion is worth a read.
As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.
Second Circuit Holds Anti-Gay Discrimination in the Workplace is Prohibited Under Title VII
To call a Second Circuit ruling last week that held anti-gay discrimination in the workplace is prohibited under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 "groundbreaking" is an understatement. While the ruling does not apply nationwide (it only will impact employers/employees in the Second Circuit), if other courts follow the Second Circuit's holding, anti-gay discrimination in the workplace could become the new norm. Readers might recall that Title VII bars discrimination in the workplace, schools, and other settings based upon race, nationality, and sex. If these civil rights protections are expanded nationwide to also protect LGBTQ people (as the Second Circuit's opinion does), this decision could be considered a landmark case. While the Second Circuit's opinion is quite lengthy, it is worth paging through for a sense of how the Court arrived at its decision.
Do Laws Barring Employers From Asking About Salary History Actually Matter?
Noam Scheiber at The New York Times wrote an interesting article a few weeks ago in which he surmised that laws in New York City, Delaware, and California which bar employers from asking applicants about their salary history might not actually be having its intended effect. Many of these laws were passed to prevent discrimination that can arise when an employer judge's an applicant's worth based upon his/her previous salary history which can further increase pay disparities and other obstacles that confront some applicants. However, as Scheier suggests, employers that cannot ask about prior salary history might assume a female candidate would accept less pay than a male (since women tend to earn less than their male counterparts). In fact, one study shows that some employers tend to assume things about certain applicants when they are barred from explicitly asking (such as the criminal history of young black and Hispanic males in cities that have ban the box measures in place). It leads one to think that employers would also assume similar things in regard to salary history of certain applicants in parts of the country that prohibit asking about prior salary history. While these laws are well intentioned...perhaps that are not as effective as lawmakers would have expected.
Wage Theft a Growing Concern As Hourly Wages Rise in Santa Fe
Stop me if you have heard this one before: A state, county, city, etc. approves a wage hike and some employers decide to play hardball and for some given reason decide they are not going to comply with the new hourly wage requirement. The tough thing for some employees that deal with these wage theft issues is the fact that the laws/ordinances that approved the wage hike often do not have the teeth to make enforcement a reality. Sometimes that is because there are not the means/resources to actually enforce the wage hikes or perhaps the penalties are not severe enough for employers to care. Regardless, as Tripp Stelnicki at The New Mexican explains, after the hourly wage rate in Santa Fe rose to $11.40/hour, people have started to notice a steady uptick in wage theft claims made against employers over the past few years. In fact, some observers think that many wage theft claims actually go unreported, in part because of language barriers or a lack of knowledge on how to actually have a wage theft claim properly investigated and resolved. Is there a solution? More/better enforcement, an increase in knowledge on how to actually file a wage theft claim, more stringent penalties on employers, etc. The real question is what will actually make a difference so these hourly workers realize an increase in their hourly pay rates without being cheated by their employers. Time will tell.
A Burger Flipping Robot: The Next Employee of the Month?
The Washington Post published an article a few days ago that highlighted a burger flipping robot that is currently in operation at a California fast food burger location. This robot, expected to sell for $60,000.00 once other employers can buy it in the coming months, can receive orders, flip burgers, monitor meat temperatures, and rotate between spatulas, among other take. The only thing this robot cannot do? Put the meat patty on the grill. Besides that ‘downside’, similar to automated machines that have started to be installed at fast food locations to take a customer’s order, I think employers will continue to look at alternatives to combat rising labor costs. Will all minimum wage jobs vanish overnight? Certainly not. But for those thinking their hourly wage job is immune to automation and eventual replacement, I would tread carefully.
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