Less than 15 Employees = Freedom to Discriminate?
Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sex, color, religion, and national (ethnic) origin. Other statutes prohibit discrimination based on age and disability. For Title VII to apply to your company, you must have 15 or more employees. For the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to apply, you must have 20 or more employees. Think about that. Thousands of employers are not covered by Title VII or the other discrimination statutes.
The intent was not to put too great a burden on smaller employers, the "mom and pop" businesses out there who employ a huge percentage of workers. That is probably a good thing. But, if you are being discriminated against by one of these employers, then that is not such a good thing. A young man came to see me, once. He had a steady girlfriend, someone he cared about very much. But, his older female boss and sole proprietor kept "making moves" on him. She just would not stop. He was very upset. He loved his work. But, this steady pressure to cooperate was taking a toll. I had to break the bad news to him. Even with part-time employees, they were way short of 15 employees.
He left my office knowing he would have to quit or risk losing his job when he was not ready for it. Plus, his girlfriend was not happy with him for staying there as long as he had.
In a perfect world, we would all lose or keep our jobs based on our merit. But, in this world, we often lose or keep jobs through no fault of our own. Welcome to free (or semi-free) enterprise......
