EEOC Issues Fact Sheet: Bathroom Access Rights for Transgender Employees Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Related: Transgender bathrooms is a solution in search of a problem
Jon Hyman of Ohio Employer’s Law Blog links to a variety of employment law blogs, commenting on this issue and the EEOC transgender employee fact sheet. He notes:
Here’s the bottom line.
Like OSHA said in similar guidance nearly a year ago, it is illegal to require an employee to use the bathroom of his of her gender of birth, or a single-user bathroom. Instead, an employer must permit a transgender employee to use the bathroom of the gender with which the employee identifies.
Pay Attention to Laws Affecting Transgender Employees
Dan Bowling and Lauren Sanders, Talent Management
The crux of legal complaints by aggrieved employees is that federal sex discrimination laws, which prohibit discrimination based only upon biological sex, also protect persons on the basis of their gender identity. They have found support with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC is the federal agency responsible for enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the principal federal law outlawing discrimination based on gender, race, color, national origin and religion in the private sector. In 2012, an EEOC administrative judge determined that Title VII’s prohibitions on sex discrimination also prohibit discrimination because an employee is transgender. Last year, the agency reaffirmed its position in another administrative appeal.
Related:
SHRM: Anxiety over Transgender Women in Restrooms Persists
OSHA: A Guide to Restroom Access for Transgender Workers
Accommodating Pregnant Employees
Susan Schoenfeld, HR Daily Advisor
The challenge of how and when to accommodate pregnant employees has moved to the forefront as a result of recent changes to the law and recent guidance coming from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
In July 2015, the EEOC issued revised guidance addressing an employer’s obligation to accommodate pregnant employees in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Young v. United Parcel Service Doc. No. 12–1226 (2015). EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance on Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues makes it clear that Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), prohibits discrimination based on current pregnancy, past pregnancy, potential or intended pregnancy (i.e., because a woman might get pregnant), and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth.
Related: Pregnancy Discrimination in the Workplace Is on the Rise, Says New Study
For Many Working Moms, the Struggle is Real
The Hiring Site Blog
CareerBuilder’s annual Mother’s Day survey reveals that at least 2 in 5 working moms and dads are the sole breadwinners for their households; yet working dads are almost three times as likely to earn $50,000 or more and three times as likely to earn six figures.
Although they face equal pressure to take care of their families, working moms who are the sole financial providers are still significantly lagging behind working dads in terms of salary.
Only one woman was named CEO of a major company in North America in 2015
Jena McGregor, Washington Post
Just four percent of S&P 500 CEOs are women. Only 19 percent of those companies’ board members are women. Yet even among the discouraging stats about the number of women in corporate leadership roles, this one stands out: Exactly one of the 87 new CEOs named to lead the largest public companies in the United States or Canada in 2015 was a woman, according to a new report.
Unpaid Interns, Under Scrutiny
C. Forbes Sargent III, National Law Review
With summer just a few short months away, employers across the country are gearing up to welcome this year’s class of anxious young college students as summer interns. While labor is in no short supply, free intern labor is under scrutiny. Employers need to takes steps to ensure their intern programs align with federal and state regulations.
Are older Americans healthy enough to work longer?
Charlotte M. Irby, Monthly Labor Review
Should people in the United States work longer since they are living longer, with women now living to be approximately 81 and men 76? Better yet, maybe the question that needs to be asked is, “Do older Americans have the health capacity to work longer?” Courtney Coile, Kevin S. Milligan, and David A. Wise discuss this question in their paper, “Health capacity to work at older ages: evidence from the U.S.” (National Bureau of Economic Research, working paper no. 21940, January 2016).
Currently, employment drops off rapidly once people reach their 60s, but, according to the authors, health tends to decline “steadily but quite gradually with age.” With increases in the Social Security retirement age and with some talk of a possible higher eligibility age for Medicare, the authors feel that older people’s health capacity to work longer is indeed a topic worth investigating.
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