Law Commons^™

How The New Economics Can Improve Employment Discrimination Law, And How Economics Can Survive The Demise Of The "Rational Actor", Scott A. Moss, Peter H. Huang

William & Mary Law Review

Much employment discrimination law is premised on a purely money-focused "reasonable" employee, the sort who can be made whole with damages equal to lost wages, and who does not hesitate to challenge workplace discrimination. This type of "rational" actor populated older economic models but has been since modified by behavioral economics and research on happiness. Behavioral and traditional economists alike have analyzed broad employment policies, such as the wisdom of discrimination statutes, but the devil is in the details of employment law. On the critical damages-and liability issues the Supreme Court and litigators face regularly, the law essentially ignores the …

Lilly Ledbetter, Take Two: The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Of 2009 And The Discovery Rule's Place In The Pay Discrimination Puzzle, Nancy Zisk

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Babbling About Employment Discrimination Law: Does The Builder Understand The Blueprint For The Great Tower?, William R. Corbett

William R. Corbett

The article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in which the Court held that a plaintiff asserting an intentional age discrimination claim cannot avail himself of the mixed-motives proof structure and instead must prove but-for causation. Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., 129 S. Ct. 2343 (2009). The decision was controversial, and it has provoked calls for a legislative response. My article considers Gross from two perspectives. First, Gross is the second Supreme Court decision, following Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa, 539 U.S. 90 (2003), to interpret the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on the …

Height Discrimination In Employment, Isaac B. Rosenberg

W&M Law Student Publications

This Article looks critically at heightism, i.e., prejudice or discrimination against a person on the basis of his or her height. Although much scholarship has focused on other forms of trait-based discrimination—most notably weight and appearance discrimination, both of which indirectly involve height as a component—little has focused on “pure” height discrimination. Nevertheless, within the past five years courts, scholars, and legislatures have increasingly tackled these non-traditional forms of discrimination. As such, this Article endeavors to fill the gap in the existing scholarship.

This Article specifically focuses on heightism in the workplace, with an emphasis on prejudice against short people …

Transforming Transsexual And Transgender Rights, L. Camille Hebert

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

State and federal employment anti-discrimination statutes have failed to adequately protect transsexual and transgendered individuals in the workplace. Although advancements have been made in recent years regarding the protection of sexual minorities, transsexual and transgendered employees continue to receive sporadic and noncomprehensive protection. Various approaches have been taken to extend protection against discrimination to these individuals, including the utilization of disability protection statutes, the expansion of anti-discrimination statutes, and the protection of transsexual and transgendered individuals as a class; however, these approaches have proven flawed in providing adequate protection.

An examination of anti-discrimination law shows that these measures, while perhaps …

Religion In The Workplace: A Report On The Layers Of Relevant Law In The United States, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Lilly Ledbetter's Liberty: Why Equal Pay For Equal Work Remains An Elusive Reality, Katie Putnam

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Discrimination: A Look At Complex Bias, Minna J. Kotkin

William & Mary Law Review

Multiple claims have become a fixture of employment discrimination litigation. It is common, if not ubiquitous, for court opinions to begin with a version of the following litany: 'Plaintiff brings this action under Title VII and the ADEA for race, age, and gender discrimination. "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) statistics show exponential growth in multiple claims in part because its intake procedures lead claimants to describe their multiple identities, at a time when they have little basis upon which to parse a specific category of bias. But increased diversity in workplace demographics suggests that frequently, disparate treatment may in fact …

Erasing Boundaries: Masculinities, Sexual Minorities, And Employment Discrimination, Ann Mcginley

Ann McGinley

This article analyzes the application of employment discrimination law to sexual minorities – lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex individuals. It evaluates Title VII and state anti-discrimination laws’ treatment of these individuals, and is the first article to use masculinities research, theoretical and empirical, to explain employment discrimination against sexual minorities.While the article concludes that new legislation would further the interests of sexual minorities, it posits that it is neither necessary nor sufficient to solving the employment discrimination problems of sexual minorities. A major problem lies in the courts’ binary view of sex and gender, a view that identifies men …

Is Labor Really Cheap In China - Compliance With Labor And Employment Laws, Marisa Anne Pagnattaro

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article details China’s the growing body of labor and employment laws. Specifically, this research analyzes major labor and employment law developments in China, including the newly adopted Labor Contract Law, employment discrimination sexual harassment, wages, workplace health and safety, worker privacy, and dispute resolution. The ramifications of this developing legal landscape on U.S. companies doing business in China are also discussed.

The Future Of Work-Family Policy: Is "Choice" The Right Choice?, Michelle Travis

Michelle A. Travis

This article reviews the new, interdisciplinary book, Women and Employment: Changing Lives and New Challenges, which contains a set of empirical studies and policy proposals on work-family balance. This review uses the book’s research and analysis as a springboard for considering the role that gender equality should play in advancing a coherent work-family policy agenda, and more specifically, what “gender equality” means in the context of care work and labor force participation. Until recently, work-family discourse has been influenced by two dominant perspectives: one that seeks to achieve equal employment outcomes for women and men, and one that focuses on …

Opening The Doors To The Local Courthouse: Maryland's New Private Right Of Action For Employment Discrimination, Deborah Eisenberg

Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

No abstract provided.

Lashing Back At The Ada Backlash: How The Americans With Disabilities Act Benefits Americans Without Disabilities, Michelle A. Travis

Michelle A. Travis

This Article applies Professor Derrick Bell's interest convergence hypothesis to the disability context. By identifying how the ADA benefits nondisabled workers, this Article challenges the notion that advancing equality for individuals with disabilities necessarily comes at the expense of the nondisabled workforce. Many scholars have documented the socio-legal backlash against the ADA, particularly the ADA's reasonable accommodation mandate. This backlash is fueled in part by a belief that the ADA is a form of social welfare, rather than an antidiscrimination law, and that the accommodation mandate requires affirmative action or preferential treatment, rather than merely ensuring equal employment opportunities. More …

The Pda's Causation Effect: Observations Of An Unreasonable Woman, Michelle A. Travis

Michelle A. Travis

While many scholars rightfully have critiqued the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (“PDA”) as falling short of achieving the ultimate goal of equal employment opportunities for women, this Article reveals one of the PDA’s most important successes. By recognizing pregnant women as a “given” in the workplace, the PDA launched a quiet revolution in the way that judges make causal attributions for adverse employment outcomes. Specifically, the PDA provided judges with the conceptual tools that were needed to help shift causal attributions to an employer, rather than attributing a pregnant woman’s struggles in the workplace to her own decision to become a …