Law Commons^™

Salary History And Pay Parity, Jennifer Safstrom

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Inquiries about a prospective applicant's salary history are controversial because of the role such inequities play in the broader gender pay equity debate. The use of prior salary to determine compensation can perpetuate pay discrimination for women, especially women of color, and lock them into cycles of underpayment when these inequities are carried over from job to job. Reliance on salary history perpetuates historical discrimination and is antithetical to the language and purpose of Title VII and the Equal Pay Act. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the legal reasoning relied upon to interpret these laws, especially …

Feminism And The Tournament, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Naomi Bishop, the protagonist of the 2016 film "Equity," is the rare "she-wolf of Wall Street."' At the beginning of the film, Bishop appears on a panel at an alumni event. She explains her career choices to the young women in the audience as follows: I like money. I do. I like numbers. I like negotiating. I love a challenge. Turning a no into a yes. But I really do like money. I like knowing that I have it. I grew up in a house where there was never enough. I was raised by a single mom with four kids. …

The Use And Misuse Of Econometric Evidence In Employment Discrimination Cases, Joni Hersch, Blair Druhan Bullock

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Experts routinely criticize three aspects of regression analyses presented by the opposing party in employment discrimination cases: omitted explanatory variables, sample size, and statistical significance. However, these factors affect the reliability of the regression results only in very limited circumstances. As a result, valid regression analyses do not provide the critical guidance that they should in employment discrimination cases. Our own statistical analyses of seventy-eight Title VII employment discrimination cases find that merely raising these critiques, even if spurious, reduces plaintiffs’ likelihood of prevailing at trial. We propose that courts adopt a peer-review system in which court-appointed economists, compensated by …

The Title Vii Tug-Of-War: Application Of U.S. Employment Discrimination Law Extraterritorially, Latoya S. Brown

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Companies around the world increasingly are engaging in cross-border business transactions. Globalization is a must if companies want to continue to be competitive in the marketplace--indeed it is an inevitable reality. However, in the midst of this reality is another reality: the legal implications of establishing operations abroad. Transnational expansion introduces companies to an interesting game of tug-of-war in which companies may find themselves torn between compliance with U.S. law and compliance with the laws of the host country. This Note discusses this tug-of-war in the context of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over 15 years …

The Forgotten Interest Group: Reforming Title Vii To Address The Concerns Of Workers While Eliminating Sexual Harassment, Hannah K. Vorwerk

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since 1980, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") guidelines have made employers liable for harassment perpetrated by their agents and supervisory employees, and, in some cases, for harassment occurring between co-workers in their employ. In 1991, Congress amended Title VII (the "Act") to provide compensatory and punitive damages for victims of sexual harassment. The increased damages heightened the stakes in lawsuits concerning employer liability for sexual harassment, and thus provided increased incentives for employers to implement sexual harassment policies and to discipline harassers.

The extant EEOC guidelines already had defined sexual harassment broadly to include "verbal or physical conduct of a …

Tempering Title Vii's Straight Arrow Approach: Recognizing And Protecting Gay Victims Of Employment Discrimination, Marie E. Peluso

Vanderbilt Law Review

Consider the following scenario: Jerry, an outstanding graduate of Superior University's business school, has worked for Moneytree & Cashdollar, a prestigious investment banking firm, for three years. In that period, Jerry's hard work and keen instincts helped increase Moneytree's revenues by several million dollars. In addition, Jerry received two awards for landing important new clients. The firm's managing partners have discussed promoting Jerry to junior vice president, an executive position typically reserved for qualified fifth year employees. Jerry's supervisors and peers enthusiastically commend his dedication and skill. Two weeks before the vote on his promotion, Jerry lured a particularly valuable …

Recent Development: Amenability Of Foreign Corporations To United States Employment Discrimination Laws, Kevin C. Tyra

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

As the Linskey court noted, the existence of employment exemption provisions in over thirty commercial treaties, if liberally construed, would create a loophole in Title VII enforcement. Given the ever-increasing number of United States employees of foreign-owned corporations, liberal treaty constructions could decrease the scope of Title VII.

Nevertheless, the effect on international commerce must be considered. Although equal employment opportunity is a laudable goal, this goal may conflict with the values of other cultures, as it did with the culturally-based organization and management philosophy of the C. Itoh Co. A more prudent approach to the problem of subsidiaries might …

A Comparative Review Of Public And Private Enforcement Of Title Vii Of The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Robert Belton

Vanderbilt Law Review

The efforts of the EEOC, the Department of Justice, and other federal and state agencies during the first decade of enforcement have been the subject of a great deal of commentary and review. Much of this commentary has been critical. Private enforcement of Title VII has produced the major legal developments, but these efforts have received little attention in the literature. This Article therefore will present a comparative review of governmental and private enforcement efforts under Title VII. A brief overview of the historical efforts to eliminate employment discrimination prior to Title VII is necessary to place private enforcement efforts …

Title Vii - Seniority - The Relevant Scope Of Inquiry For Determining The Legality Of A Seniority System, James D. Spratt, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which became effective on July 2, 1965, was enacted to eliminate artificial barriers to employment that historically have deprived minorities and women of employment opportunities. Section 703 of the Act thus makes discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin an unlawful employment practice. In order to obtain relief from a discriminatory employment practice, an aggrieved party must demonstrate that the defendant intentionally engaged in the unlawful practice. Because the broad language of sections 703(a), 703(c), and 706(g) fails to define the terms "discriminate" and"intentionally," the effectiveness …