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hiring discrimination?
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hiring discrimination?
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I recently read that if you state in an employment ad, "college graduate required", this can be considered discrimination. Is this true, and when would it happen?
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hiring discrimination?
posted at 7/20/1999 12:13 AM EDT
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Posts: 2217
First: 6/16/1999 Last: 12/13/2001 |
Inquires into dates of graduation or attendance give me concern, because they can give information about applicants' ages, which,in turn, could be intrepreted as evidence of age discrimination. In addition, I suppose the college graduation requirement (like many other job requirements) could be challenged as disparately impacting a protected group.
However, I've never heard of a flat prohibition on asking this question, particularly if the college graduate requirement is job-related and is not imposed for a discriminatory purpose. |
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hiring discrimination?
posted at 7/20/1999 1:33 AM EDT
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Posts: 28
First: 6/18/1999 Last: 11/14/2008 |
Perhaps what the person who indicated that the college degree requirement was discriminatory was making reference to a landmark case (Griggs vs. Duke Power) in which educational requirements that were not directly job-related (B.F.O.Q) were ruled discriminatory. In order for a college degree not to give the appearance of being discriminatory, it should be related directly to the job (i.e. B.A. in Finance for a Financial Analyst; B.A. in Journalism for a Reporter, etc.). Generic college degree requirements that don't specify the knowledge to have been acquired through the degree are much more likely to be considered suspect. For example, requiring a bachelor's degree (unspecified field) for a secretary, in addition to not being necessary to perform the job, could eliminate a large number of otherwise qualified candidates and could disproportionately screen out minorities.
It is much safer to specify in the job description or ad the knowledge the candidate should have acquired via the degree and to give an alternate way of fulfilling the requirements, if possible. Example for a Market Analyst: "Knowledge of marketing concepts and strategies, as well as verbal and quantitative skills normally acquired by completing a 4-year college degree program in Marketing, Business or a directly related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience." Such a phrase is far less likely to be considered discriminatory than "Bachelor's degree required." |
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hiring discrimination?
posted at 7/20/1999 12:07 PM EDT
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Posts: 4
First: 7/20/1999 Last: 8/23/1999 |
Speaking of hiring discrimination, is there some kind of exemption
for churches to the rule that regularly "off-limits" questions should be limited to BFOQ's? A friend told me that she interviewed for a job at a church and that he asked her about her age (she's under 40 so that's not really the issue) and about her nationality and marital status (issues??). He was making small talk (he could speak her native tongue) but when I heard about this, I thought it was still inappropriate. |
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hiring discrimination?
posted at 7/20/1999 11:05 PM EDT
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Posts: 434
First: 6/14/1999 Last: 4/25/2001 |
The discriminatory aspect to this question might not necessarily be the college graduate requirement. If the ad were to state a "recent college graduate", then you might have an age discrimination basis for a complaint.
I found this one out through personal experience when my company ran an ad with exactly that phrase. Within 10 days, we had an inquiry from the EEOC and had to provide the usual reams of information. Fortunately, the recent college grad we hired was 47 years old. The requirement for a college degree, especially if it's related to the occupation (an HR degree for an HR job) can easily be construed as a BFOQ. I think that if you routinely open up your candidate pool to a "degree or equivalent experience", you're introducing a very subjective criteria that could be the subject of litigation. You would have to closely define your equivalent experience. |
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hiring discrimination?
posted at 7/21/1999 1:03 AM EDT
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Posts: 2217
First: 6/16/1999 Last: 12/13/2001 |
In answer to "smeen98," Griggs was indeed a landmark decision, where the Supreme Court established the principle of disparate impact discrimination. This doctrine has been further developed through a series of susequent Supreme Court and lower court decisions, and the 1991 Civil Rights Act.
As for Griggs itself, decided by the Supreme Court in 1971, the facts concerned the effect on employment opportunities of an employer's policy of requiring a high school education or passing of a standardized general intelligence test as a condition of employment (or transfer). Neither requirement had been shown to be significantly related to successful job performance, and they operated to disqualify African-Americans at a substantially higher rate than white applicants. Further, the jobs in question formerly had been filled only by white employees as part of a long-standing practice of giving preference to whites. |
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