President Trump’s budget adversely affects the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and other agencies essential to workers’ rights. It asks for the elimination of 249 full-time positions at the EEOC as compared to 2016. The EEOC enforces numerous federal anti-discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act…
One in three women report being sexually harassed on the job in America. People started taking sexual harassment seriously when Anita Hill accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment a little more than two decades ago, but only 3% of women who are sexually harassed file a formal complaint because…
About 429,000 workers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender live in Texas. According to the Williams Institute, there are about 666,000 LGBT adults in the state, including those working. Discrimination against LGBT employees is prevalent in Texas and across the country, with about 21% of those LGBT employees responding…
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency that enforces many federal anti-discrimination laws that cover the workplace, about 17.6% of the population spoke a language other than English as of 2000. Due to the rise of diversity, many employers started implementing English-only workplace policies to stop their…
Despite claims several years ago that we live in a post-racial, post-feminist society, discrimination is alive and well in America. There are several federal statutes that prohibit discrimination on the basis of membership in protected classes, but employers continue to treat employees in disparate ways based on their identities rather…
Half of the workforce is female, but only 12% of women have paid maternity leave, according to the United States Department of Labor. The United States is the only industrialized country around the globe that doesn’t require employers to provide paid maternity leave, even though studies show health benefits to…
Most employees take it for granted that they will have access to a restroom. Recently, however, the news has shed light on the particular difficulties that transgender individuals face when they need to use the bathroom. Texas legislators are considering a bill (Senate Bill 6) that would prohibit transgender individuals…
Neil M. Gorsuch has recently become the 113th justice of the United States Supreme Court. Republicans had refused to consider President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, claiming that the choice of a justice to replace Justice Antonin Scalia should belong to the president who succeeded Obama. Once Democrats filibustered,…
The Texas Minimum Wage Act establishes minimum wage for nonexempt employees in Texas. It has adopted the federal minimum wage, and currently minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. This is too low for anybody to live on, and it is shocking when you consider how much exempt employees such as…
Before minimum wage and overtime were instituted, the average American worker worked brutal hours. Workers were easily exploited by their wealthier employers, which forced them to work around the clock just to be able to survive, living paycheck to paycheck and not making much more than what it took to feed…