What You Must Know About Equal Opportunity Laws

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What You Must Know About Equal Opportunity Laws
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• Here in US, every business is required to follow
  equal opportunity employment laws set forth by
  both the federal government and state
  governments. For most states, the federal
  governments requirements and potential sanctions
  are the major guidelines. However, other states
  have developed more stringent equal opportunity
  laws, and businesses need to be aware of those
  issues. One of the newest laws comes from
  California, requiring out-of-state employers to
  follow the California laws. This is true even if
  their primary business is outside of the
  California jurisdiction. Thus, if a business has
  an employee in the State of California and
  hundreds more outside of the state, the in-state
  employee is protected by this more stringent
  legal standing.

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Equal opportunity is more than gender based
Traditionally equal opportunity laws were
developed to protect one gender over another in
the workplace. The most common issue was a form
of sexual harassment by men over women in the
workplace. Additionally, there were attempts to
develop equal pay between genders in the
workplace however, these attempts did not bear
fruit. Most people believe that equal opportunity
laws were developed to protect women from
harassment in the workplace. However, men who
have been harassed by females or other males in
the workplace are covered by the law as
well. The most important issue today is that the
equal opportunity laws have been expanded beyond
gender-based. With the recent court ruling by the
US Supreme Court granting same-sex marriages, the
court has implied that same-sex issues are
protected class under equal opportunity laws.
Therefore, as a business, one must be aware that
gender issues as well as same-sex issues may have
an impact on the workplace. As a general business
owner, one needs to be aware that these issues
will have influence over your legal operations.
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Equal opportunity laws apply to all businesses

• There is a common misconception in the business
  community that there may be certain exceptions to
  who equal opportunity laws apply to in business.
  The simple truth of the matter is that every
  business which employees a person must
  immediately follow all equal opportunity laws.
  Therefore, whether your business is a mega
  corporation employing hundreds of thousands of
  employees, or a small business with only one
  employee, you must follow the equal opportunity
  laws.

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Common sense approach to equal opportunity laws
As a business owner, the most simple and
straightforward method to follow equal
opportunity laws is to apply common sense to your
employees. Treat all employees equally is the
most basic method to ensure compliance with equal
opportunity laws. Therefore, understand that you
have a requirement to look at all employees as
the same, without favoring individuals or groups
over others. Additionally, you must also be
concerned about what you say to employees. Recall
that harassment may be defined as a persons
perception rather than intent. This simply means
that a statement, regardless of the intent of the
person saying the statement, may be harassment if
the person hearing it interprets it that way.
Also, as a business owner, you may be liable for
what your employees and managers say to others,
including customers, fellow employees, business
associates, and others outside of your
organization. Therefore, as a business owner,
your best defense against violating equal
opportunity laws is to have a set policy on what
is proper and improper communications in the
workplace.
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