Discrimination in the Workplace and Remedies

Discrimination in the Workplace and Remedies

Ethics are firm-based standards of right and wrong that determine what people should do, regarding obligations, rights, and laws. Affirmative action program is a federal law that comprises of the practices, policies, and procedures that an employer implements when ensuring equal employment and educational opportunities for women and the minorities. It was designed to counteract historic discrimination Ehrenreich, R. (1999). Reversed discrimination resulted from affirmative action policies, which made it difficult for majority groups to get equal opportunities against minority groups in an effort to remedy past minority discrimination. Comparable worth is a policy that argued that wages in female’s jobs were underpaid and should be increased to wages in male’s job level basing on skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.

Affirmative action program is appropriate as it provided a way for the minorities to access equal opportunities that they had no access to. It addresses the issue of underutilization of minorities in the relevant labor pools. It was the beginning of eradicating racial discrimination which was rampant in all sectors of the economy. According to Ehrenreich (1999), reversed discrimination is the disadvantage that came about due to affirmative action. In my opinion it is meant to disapprove the affirmative action program. The majority groups always had better chances than minority groups and trying to equalize that meant lesser chances for majority groups which is fair. On the other hand, comparable worth is an inappropriate remedy to discrimination. Its three arguments of equal pay for equal work, equal pay for similar work, and pay parity could affect all occupations. It is difficult to decide what tasks have equal value and to tell what is fair over different job categories. This would eventually lead to higher expenditure that would necessitate higher revenue to support it, hence, negatively affecting the economy.

There are other ways of eliminating discrimination at work. One, employers can develop discrimination policy and procedure manuals following all state and federal discrimination laws for their employees. Second, encouraging sensitivity to individual’s religious and cultural practices plays a great role (Ehrenreich, 1999). Third, there is a need to create awareness on stereotypes of men’s and women’s work. Diversify departments and groups can also encourage team work over different people. All employees can attend yearly learning and training programs on discrimination. Lastly, deciding on disciplinary measure to be executed in case of discrimination complaints.

In conclusion, discrimination against race, color, national origin, gender identity, sex, age, disability, and religion are realities in our country. Every measure possible should be used to eliminate this problem that gravely affects our economy in more ways than one.

Reference

Ehrenreich, R. (1999). Dignity and discrimination: Toward a pluralistic understanding of workplace harassment. Geo. LJ, 88, 1.