In an ATL post in early 2018 I mentioned an article in The New York Times which said that “America has always had trouble with black hair,” and that “[t]he bias against black hair is as old as America itself. … [in the 18th century] British colonists classified African hair as closer to sheep wool than human hair.” So earlier this year, I wrote a post entitled “’America has always had trouble with black hair’: NYC…

By Amy Epstein Gluck Equal pay is getting a lot of press these days. Indeed, it seems to be a “Hot HR Topic.” (Yes, that IS a thing! OK, just for employment law nerds.) There’s a federal law requiring employers to provide equal pay for equal work, and, employers should know that most states have equal pay statutes on the books. So why are pay audits having such a moment right now? Women’s sports may…

By: Amy Epstein Gluck One of my favorite cosmetics retailer closed all of its US-based stores today for diversity and inclusion training. The focus? What it means to be a diverse and inclusive workplace. In addition to the one-hour store closures today, the company said it would close its distribution centers and corporate headquarters for trainings about “gender identity, race and ethnicity, age abilities and more.” You can read the whole story in Time here. Interesting,…

A couple of useful takeaways from this latest settlement of a “low hanging fruit” EEOC lawsuit. The EEOC announced that a large health network which owned and operated three Arizona hospitals agreed to pay $545,000 to settle … yes, you guessed it! – a lawsuit which alleged discrimination against employees with disabilities and pregnant women with pregnancy-related medical conditions. This health care company hit the jackpot – it was charged with discriminating against BOTH disabled and…

By Amy Epstein Gluck They can’t, entirely. But let’s discuss this. Late last week and over this weekend, I, along with the rest of the country I’m sure, read about the horrific events that occurred in a municipal building in Virginia Beach. There, a “disgruntled employee” opened fire at his workplace and murdered twelve colleagues. I don’t know why the gunman was disgruntled. I know nothing about his workplace. Actually, I learned today that the…

Two years ago I wrote that sexual harassers need not be co-employees or managers of a harassed employee. They can be outside vendors, clients, customers etc.  The point is not who is doing the harassing, but if a hostile work environment has been created which the employer must remedy. At that time a news item from Seattle caught my eye: it was another  illustration of this point – and included a possible way to accommodate…